Base Class: Paladin
The Oath of Guile is sworn by paladins who understand that truth and virtue are not always the same thing. Often chosen by deities of trickery, cunning, freedom, or mischief, these paladins wield deception as readily as others wield steel.
A paladin of Guile may lie to a tyrant, impersonate an enemy, conceal the innocent, or deliberately lead a foe into a trap. They believe predictability gives power to their enemies, and that arrogance is best answered by humiliation.
In battle, these paladins employ supernatural Feints that manipulate movement, attention, and perception. Their enemies rarely know whether an opening is genuine, an attack is coming from where it appears, or whether the paladin they are fighting is even where they thought.
Deception, however, is not betrayal. Those who genuinely place their trust in a paladin of Guile are afforded fierce protection. A lie told to protect another may be sacred; betraying someone who trusted you rarely is.
Tenants of Oath of Guile
Truth Is a Tool
Truth and falsehood possess no inherent virtue. Judge words by what they accomplish and whom they protect.
Never Show Your Whole Hand
Knowledge freely surrendered is power freely surrendered. Let your enemies underestimate you.
Pride Deserves a Fall
Expose arrogance and humble those who believe their power places them beyond consequence.
Protect Those Who Trust You
Deceive your enemies without hesitation, but do not casually betray those who have genuinely placed their faith in you.
Keep Them Guessing
Predictability gives your enemy power. Change the plan, change the approach, and when your opponent understands what you are doing, already be doing something else.
Level 3: Oath of Guile Spells
The magic of your oath ensures you always have certain spells ready. When you reach a Paladin level specified in the Oath of Guile Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
| Paladin Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3 | Disguise Self, Dissonant Whispers |
| 5 | Mirror Image, Suggestion |
| 9 | Major Image, Nondetection |
| 13 | Confusion, Greater Invisibility |
| 17 | Mislead, Modify Memory |
Level 3: Silvered Tongue
Your divine calling has taught you that words can be every bit as powerful as weapons.
Silvered Words. You gain proficiency in the Deception skill. If you already have proficiency in Deception, you instead gain Expertise in Deception, doubling your Proficiency Bonus for any ability check you make using that skill.
Cunning Insight. When you make a Wisdom (Insight) check, you can use your Charisma modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier.
Level 3: Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following Channel Divinity options. When you use one of these options, you expend one use of your Paladin's Channel Divinity.
Silver-Tongued Devil. As a Bonus Action, you invoke divine guile to make your words extraordinarily convincing. For 10 minutes, you have Advantage on Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks, and creatures have Disadvantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks made to determine whether you are lying.
Once during the duration, when you tell a deliberate falsehood to a creature that can hear and understand you, you can force that creature to make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature considers the falsehood plausible for the duration. This doesn't compel the creature to act on the falsehood, cause it to ignore obvious evidence, or make an impossible claim appear possible.
Divine Misdirection. When a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack against you or an ally, you can use your Reaction and expend one use of your Channel Divinity to confound the attacker's perception. The attacker must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, the triggering attack misses its original target. You can then choose another creature within 10 feet of the original target that would be a valid target of the attack. Compare the original attack roll against the new target's AC. If the attack roll would hit the new target, the attack hits that creature instead. You can't redirect the attack against the attacker itself.
On a successful save, the triggering attack is instead made against its original target with Disadvantage.
Level 3: Guile's Feint
You have learned to weave mundane trickery and divine misdirection into your words and movements. You learn three Feints of your choice from the Feint options available to you. You learn one additional Feint when you reach 7th, 11th, and 15th level in this class.
You can use your Feints a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Short or Long Rest.
Unless a Feint states otherwise, you can use only one Feint per turn.
If a Feint requires a saving throw, the saving throw uses your Paladin spell save DC.
Whenever you gain a Paladin level, you can replace one Feint you know with another Feint for which you qualify.
Greater Feints. Beginning at 11th level, your mastery of deception becomes supernatural. Whenever you learn or replace a Feint, you can choose from the Greater Feints in addition to the Basic Feints.
Improved Guile's Feint. Beginning at 11th level, when you roll Initiative and have no uses of Guile's Feint remaining, you regain one use.
Bait and Switch
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint and choose a willing ally within 5 feet of you.
You and that ally exchange positions, provided you can both fit in each other's spaces. This movement doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks from the creature you hit.
Come and Get Me
Trigger: You hit a creature with a melee weapon attack.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint to move up to half your Speed.
The creature you hit can then use its Reaction to move up to its Speed toward you. This movement doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks.
The creature isn't compelled to move.
Eyes on Me
Trigger: A creature you can see targets a willing ally within 5 feet of you with an attack.
Before the attack roll is made, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint and use your Reaction to draw the attacker's attention toward yourself.
You and the targeted ally immediately exchange positions, provided you can both fit in each other's spaces. This movement doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks.
You become the target of the triggering attack instead.
False Death
Trigger: You take damage.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint and use your Reaction to fall Prone and magically appear dead or unconscious.
Until you move, take an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction, or voluntarily end the effect, creatures that can see you believe you are incapacitated unless they succeed on a Wisdom (Insight) check against your Paladin spell save DC.
A creature can use its Action to examine you closely, making this check with Advantage.
False Opening
Trigger: A creature targets you with a melee attack.
Before the attack roll is made, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint and use your Reaction to deliberately expose an apparent weakness in your defence.
If the triggering attack misses you, you can immediately make one melee weapon attack against the attacker as part of the same Reaction.
If the triggering attack hits you, the Feint is expended with no additional effect.
Friendly Face
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, until the start of your next turn, the creature can't willingly make an attack against you while another creature hostile to it is within the attack's range.
The effect ends immediately if you damage the creature again.
On a successful save, the Feint has no effect.
I Meant to Do That
Trigger: You fail a Dexterity (Acrobatics), Dexterity (Sleight of Hand), or Charisma (Deception) check.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint to add your Charisma modifier to the roll, potentially turning the failure into a success.
Look Behind You
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
Through a glance, gesture, or moment of misdirection, you convince your opponent that a more pressing threat lies elsewhere.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint. The creature can't make Opportunity Attacks until the start of your next turn.
Misdirect
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
You deliberately draw the creature's attention away from the real threat. Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint. The next attack roll made against that creature by a creature other than you before the start of your next turn has Advantage.
Once that attack roll is made, the effect ends.
Not Where You Thought
Trigger: A creature you can see makes an attack roll against you.
You create a momentary false impression of your position.
After the attack roll is made but before you know whether it hits or misses, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint and use your Reaction to gain a +2 bonus to your AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss.
Nothing to See Here
Trigger: You or an ally within 10 feet of you fails a Deception, Stealth, or Sleight of Hand check against a creature you can see.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint. The observing creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, that creature treats the triggering ability check as though it had succeeded against it.
This Feint affects only that creature.
On a successful save, the Feint has no effect.
Now You See Me
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint to vanish from that creature's perception.
You have the Invisible condition only in relation to that creature until the start of your next turn.
The effect ends early immediately after you make an attack against that creature, deal damage to it, or force it to make a saving throw.
Overcommit
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
You manipulate your opponent's stance, causing it to commit its weight in the wrong direction.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint and choose Strength or Dexterity. The creature has Disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes using the chosen ability before the start of your next turn.
Once the saving throw is made, the effect ends.
Read the Liar
Trigger: You make an Insight check to determine whether a creature is lying, misleading you, or deliberately concealing information.
Before you know whether the check succeeds or fails, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint to gain Advantage on the check.
If you already have Advantage on the check, you instead add your Charisma modifier to the roll.
Slippery Bastard
Trigger: A creature misses you with a melee attack.
You turn your opponent's failed attack into an opportunity to slip away.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint and use your Reaction to move up to half your Speed. This movement doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks from the creature that triggered this Feint.
There You Are
Trigger: A creature misses you with a melee attack.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint and use your Reaction to choose another creature within the attacker's reach that would have been a valid target of the attack.
The attacker must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, compare the original attack roll against the chosen creature's AC. If the original roll would hit that creature, the attack hits it instead.
On a successful save, the attack misses as normal.
You can't redirect the attack against the attacker itself.
Wasn't Me
Trigger: You deal damage to a creature with a weapon attack.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint and choose another creature the target can see within 30 feet.
The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, until the start of your next turn, the target believes the chosen creature was responsible for the triggering attack.
This Feint doesn't alter physical evidence and ends early if the target encounters incontrovertible evidence of the attack's true source.
On a successful save, the Feint has no effect.
Watch the Other Hand
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint and choose one ally within 5 feet of the creature you hit.
Until the start of your next turn, the creature has Disadvantage on Opportunity Attacks it makes against that ally.
What's That?
Trigger: You make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check while one or more creatures can see you.
Choose one creature that can see you and expend one use of Guile's Feint.
That creature has Disadvantage on any ability check it makes to notice or detect the action represented by your Sleight of Hand check.
This Feint affects only the chosen creature.
Wrong Enemy
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint and choose another creature within 10 feet of the target.
The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, until the start of your next turn, the chosen creature is considered hostile to the target for the purpose of triggering and making Opportunity Attacks.
On a successful save, the Feint has no effect.
Wrong Foot
Trigger: You hit a creature with a weapon attack.
You exploit your opponent's incorrect read of your movement. Immediately after the attack, you can expend one use of Guile's Feint to move up to 10 feet without provoking Opportunity Attacks from the creature you hit.
Wrong Target
Trigger: A creature within 5 feet of you makes an Opportunity Attack against another creature.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint and use your Reaction to confuse the attacker about its target.
The attacker must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC or make the Opportunity Attack against another creature of your choice within its reach that would be a valid target for the attack, using the original attack roll.
You can't choose the attacker itself.
On a successful save, the Opportunity Attack proceeds against its original target.
Yes, I can
Trigger: You fail a Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Persuasion) check.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint to immediately reroll the ability check. You must use the new roll.
You Already Checked
Trigger: A creature attempts to search you, inspect something you're carrying, or investigate something you've deliberately concealed.
You can expend one use of Guile's Feint. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, for 1 minute the creature becomes convinced that it has already satisfactorily checked the relevant creature, object, or location.
The effect ends early if the creature encounters obvious evidence contradicting that belief.
On a successful save, the Feint has no effect.
Level 7: Aura of Uncertainty
Your presence clouds your enemies' perception, making it difficult for them to distinguish an opening from a carefully laid trap. When a hostile creature within your Aura of Protection misses you or another creature within that aura with an attack roll, you can use your Reaction to attempt to redirect the attack.
Choose another creature within 5 feet of the attacker that could have been a valid target of the attack. The attacker must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Paladin spell save DC.
On a failed save, compare the original attack roll against the new target's AC. If the original attack roll would hit the new target, the attack hits that creature instead.
On a successful save, the attack misses as normal.
You can't redirect an attack back onto the attacker itself.
Level 15: Master of Misdirection
Your command of deception has become instinctive. Even when one trick is uncovered, it merely conceals another.
One Lie Conceals Another. You can use up to two different Feints during the same turn, provided the Feints have different triggering events. You can't use two Feints in response to the same triggering event.
Always Have an Exit. Once per round, when you expend a use of Guile's Feint and that Feint fails solely because a creature succeeds on a saving throw against it, roll a d6. On a roll of 5 or 6, the Feint use isn't expended.
Level 20: Master of a Thousand Lies
As a Bonus Action, you become an avatar of divine deception for 1 minute. False images split from your body, footsteps sound from impossible directions, and enemies struggle to distinguish your true position from your illusions.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a Long Rest.
Many Faces. When you activate this feature, three illusory duplicates of you appear in unoccupied spaces you can see within 30 feet. Each duplicate has an AC equal to your AC and disappears if it is hit by an attack. The duplicates can't deal damage, manipulate objects, or physically affect creatures. At the beginning of each of your turns, you can move each remaining duplicate up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
Which One? Whenever a creature you can see targets you with an attack, you can cause one of your duplicates within the attack's range to become the apparent target instead. Roll a d6. On a roll of 3 or higher, the attack targets the duplicate. On a roll of 1 or 2, the attack targets you normally. This requires no action or Reaction.
Trade Places. As a Bonus Action, you can magically exchange positions with one of your duplicates within 60 feet. This teleportation doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks. After you exchange places, creatures other than your allies don't automatically know which figure is you.
Everywhere and Nowhere. Before making a melee weapon attack, you can choose yourself or one of your duplicates. For the purposes of the attack's range and determining its target, you are treated as occupying the chosen space. After the attack resolves, you remain in your actual space.
The Last Laugh. Once during this transformation, when you would be reduced to 0 Hit Points but not killed outright, you can instead cause your apparent body to disappear. Choose one remaining duplicate. You reappear in that duplicate's space with 1 Hit Point, and all other duplicates disappear.
Illusory Nature. Your duplicates aren't creatures. They can't provide Flanking, trigger Opportunity Attacks, occupy spaces, or satisfy any requirement that calls for another creature or ally.
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