Oath of the Holy Guard

The Oath of the Holy Guard binds paladins under the guidance of spiritual guardians. These spirits seek the protection of all life throughout the mortal plane and seek justice on those who dare bring harm to it. The spirits can take many forms, appearing as vestiges of past heroes seeking to protect their home even beyond death, to angels or other spiritual warriors representing a paladin's pantheon of devotion, or bestial familiars that stand to aid you.

Paladins who follow the Holy Guard's oath dedicate their service to the commonwealth. They see it as their duty to seek out justice for the greater good and protect the peace of any and all allies they gain. These paladins are the sentinels at city gates, the physical shield of their adventuring party, placing the lives of their comrades before all else. These paladins must hone their body to become a powerful bulwark capable of shielding the virtuous from the wicked.

Tenets of the Holy Guard

Actions over Words. Strive to be known by your generous deeds, not words.

Compassion. Aid others, protect the weak, and punish those who threaten them. Show mercy to your foes, but temper it with wisdom.

Be Their Shield. Your body is honed to withstand punishment, you use it to interpose between threats whenever one should arise.

Courage. You must be willing to do what needs to be done for the sake of peace, even in the face of overwhelming odds. If you don't act, then who will?

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Oath of the Holy Guard Spells

Channel Divinity

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

Rebuke the Violent. You can use your Channel Divinity to rebuke those who use violence. Immediately after an attacker within 30 feet of you deals damage with an attack against a creature other than you, you can use your reaction to force the attacker to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the attacker takes radiant damage equal to the damage it just dealt. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage.

Intercept the Threat. You can use your Channel Divinity to place yourself in the center of danger. When a creature attempts to deal damage to an ally within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction to magically teleport 5 feet from the ally within the attacker’s range. You cause the creature to strike against you instead of their original target. You have +2 AC against the attack.

Aura of Fortification

At 7th level, while you aren't incapacitated you emanate an aura that tempers souls to withstand strife. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you gain advantage to constitution and death saving throws.

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

Divine Guardian

When you reach 15th level, you can turn defense into a sudden strike. When you or another creature you can see within 15 feet of you is hit by an attack roll, you can use your reaction to grant a bonus to the target's AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss. The bonus equals your Charisma modifier (minimum of +l). If the attack misses, you can make one weapon attack against the attacker as part of this reaction, if the attacker is out of your reach, a spiritual guardian appears next to the creature, allowing you to attack through them.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Spiritual Bulwark

At 20th level, your will is permanently tied to the guardians that guide you, allowing you to transcend the living and become a divine protector for your allies. You can use your action to gain the following benefits for 10 minutes:

• Your body becomes slightly incorporeal, giving you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons.
  
  
• Your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks and you cannot be knocked prone.
  
  
• When you successfully hit a creature with an attack roll, you can force it to make a wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a fail save the creature has disadvantage on attacking all other creatures beside you. They may remake the save at the end of their turn, once a creature saves they are immune to the effect for the next 24 hours.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a 5th-level spell slot to use it again.