I have not yet had a chance to look at the 2024 DMG and see whether the Oathbreaker Paladin subclass and Death Cleric subclass made a comeback. Regardless, I tried my hand at reimagining the Oathbreaker for the 2024 ruleset. Let me know what you think
Oathbreaker (2024)
An oathbreaker is a paladin who breaks their sacred oaths to pursue some dark ambition or serve an evil power. A paladin may break their oath seeking to selfishly serve their own ends, by becoming disillusioned with the rules they once sought to follow, or even by losing reverence for rules and laws in general. The vestige of power which once served their oath is now twisted and corrupted into a new form.
Level 3: Draining Touch
Your touch can drain life force from others. As a Bonus Action, you can make a melee spell attack against one creature within reach. On a hit, you can expend Hit Points from the pool of healing power of your Lay on Hands feature, dealing 1d10 Necrotic damage for every 10 Hit Points expended. If you score a critical hit with this attack, your pool of healing power also regains a number of Hit Points equal to half the amount of Necrotic damage dealt (round down).
Level 3: Dreadful Smite
Immediately after you cast Divine Smite, you can expend one use of your Channel Divinity and force each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature is Frightened of you for 1 minute. If a creature ends its turn more than 30 feet away from you, it can attempt another Wisdom saving throw to end the effect on itself early.
Additionally, for this casting of Divine Smite, you can have the spell deal Necrotic damage rather than its normal type.
Level 3: Oathbreaker Spells
The magic of your oath ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Paladin level specified in the Oath of the Crown Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
Attacks you make using a Melee weapon or Unarmed Strike against a creature within your Aura of Protection deal additional Necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier. Additionally, when a creature hits you or an ally within your Aura of Protection with an attack, you can take a Reaction to focus your hatred on that creature. Until the endstart of your next turn, all attacks made against that creature have Advantage while it is within your aura.
Level 15: Supernatural Resistance
You have resistance against Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage. You also have resistance against any damage dealt by an attack or effect made by a creature that has the Frightened condition.
Level 20: Dread Lord
As a Bonus Action, you can imbue your Aura of Protection with gloom, granting the benefits below for 1 minute or until you end them (no action required). Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest. You can also restore your use of it by expending a level 5 spell slot (no action required).
Cloaked in Shadow. You and allies within your aura have the Invisible condition.
Dreadful Presence. Any enemy which starts its turn in the aura takes 4d10 Psychic damage if it has the Frightened condition.
Hateful Frenzy. Attacks made by you or allies within your aura using a Melee weapon or Unarmed Strike deal additional Necrotic damage equal to the number of enemies within your aura.
"Until the end of your next turn, all attacks made against that creature have Advantage."
The 2024 Paladin / 2024 Paladin subclasses have almost no interaction with their Reaction (beyond... attacking).
For the cost of a Reaction, this a free buff to you and your party that you will almost never not use.
Suggestions: You either change it to only benefit the Paladin (which is on theme) or make it:
"Until the start of your next turn..."
Giving your party the value of the feature (which is more in-line with Paladin). You might even want to place a Charisma mod / a proficiency per day limit on it (though it doesn’t really matter).
"Until the end of your next turn, all attacks made against that creature have Advantage."
The 2024 Paladin / 2024 Paladin subclasses have almost no interaction with their Reaction (beyond... attacking).
For the cost of a Reaction, this a free buff to you and your party that you will almost never not use.
Suggestions: You either change it to only benefit the Paladin (which is on theme) or make it:
"Until the start of your next turn..."
Giving your party the value of the feature (which is more in-line with Paladin). You might even want to place a Charisma mod / a proficiency per day limit on it (though it doesn’t really matter).
Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably go with the latter suggestion. Since the first half of the ability is a benefit available only to the Paladin, I still want there to be some buff to the aura that benefits the party. To try and keep to the theme, I am also adding the restriction that the enemy has to be within the aura to retain the benefit, which should add enough extra conditions for the buff to end early (either through your movement, the enemy's, or party members pushing/pulling it out) to not merit tagging on adding a x/day limit
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably go with the latter suggestion. Since the first half of the ability is a benefit available only to the Paladin, I still want there to be some buff to the aura that benefits the party. To try and keep to the theme, I am also adding the restriction that the enemy has to be within the aura to retain the benefit, which should add enough extra conditions for the buff to end early (either through your movement, the enemy's, or party members pushing/pulling it out) to not merit tagging on adding a x/day limit
That's fine; another thing to keep in mind that all the 2024 smites past Paladin level 1...
Shining Smite (advantage on all attacks, Concentration)
Radiant Smite (auto-blind on the target, must make a Constitution save to end the effect at start of turn, No Concentration)
Staggering Smite (Stun on failed Wisdom check, No Concentration)
...give a Paladin a lot of ways to generate party-wide advantage; so feel free to make Paladin subclass features that are self-serving for any homebrew.
Side Note:
A special shout out to how awful 2024 Banishing Smite is for a Paladin exclusive 17th level spell, oh boy, did they do just about everything they could to make me never want to use this spell, because, some people forgot Paladin was a halfcaster during the Playtest. This thing competes with 9th level spells, and effectively reads "I do slightly more damage than Divine Smite."
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I have not yet had a chance to look at the 2024 DMG and see whether the Oathbreaker Paladin subclass and Death Cleric subclass made a comeback. Regardless, I tried my hand at reimagining the Oathbreaker for the 2024 ruleset. Let me know what you think
Oathbreaker (2024)
An oathbreaker is a paladin who breaks their sacred oaths to pursue some dark ambition or serve an evil power. A paladin may break their oath seeking to selfishly serve their own ends, by becoming disillusioned with the rules they once sought to follow, or even by losing reverence for rules and laws in general. The vestige of power which once served their oath is now twisted and corrupted into a new form.
Level 3: Draining Touch
Your touch can drain life force from others. As a Bonus Action, you can make a melee spell attack against one creature within reach. On a hit, you can expend Hit Points from the pool of healing power of your Lay on Hands feature, dealing 1d10 Necrotic damage for every 10 Hit Points expended. If you score a critical hit with this attack, your pool of healing power also regains a number of Hit Points equal to half the amount of Necrotic damage dealt (round down).
Level 3: Dreadful Smite
Immediately after you cast Divine Smite, you can expend one use of your Channel Divinity and force each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature is Frightened of you for 1 minute. If a creature ends its turn more than 30 feet away from you, it can attempt another Wisdom saving throw to end the effect on itself early.
Additionally, for this casting of Divine Smite, you can have the spell deal Necrotic damage rather than its normal type.
Level 3: Oathbreaker Spells
The magic of your oath ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Paladin level specified in the Oath of the Crown Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
Oathbreaker Spells
Paladin Level
Spells
3rd
Hellish Rebuke, Inflict Wounds
5th
Crown of Madness, Darkness
9th
Bestow Curse, Fear
13th
Blight, Confusion
17th
Contagion, Dominate Person
Level 7: Aura of Hate
Attacks you make using a Melee weapon or Unarmed Strike against a creature within your Aura of Protection deal additional Necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier. Additionally, when a creature hits you or an ally within your Aura of Protection with an attack, you can take a Reaction to focus your hatred on that creature. Until the
endstart of your next turn, all attacks made against that creature have Advantage while it is within your aura.Level 15: Supernatural Resistance
You have resistance against Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage. You also have resistance against any damage dealt by an attack or effect made by a creature that has the Frightened condition.
Level 20: Dread Lord
As a Bonus Action, you can imbue your Aura of Protection with gloom, granting the benefits below for 1 minute or until you end them (no action required). Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest. You can also restore your use of it by expending a level 5 spell slot (no action required).
Cloaked in Shadow. You and allies within your aura have the Invisible condition.
Dreadful Presence. Any enemy which starts its turn in the aura takes 4d10 Psychic damage if it has the Frightened condition.
Hateful Frenzy. Attacks made by you or allies within your aura using a Melee weapon or Unarmed Strike deal additional Necrotic damage equal to the number of enemies within your aura.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
They didn't return.
>:(
I liked death domain!
KOBOLDS WITH CANNONS! A RP thread about Small humanoids with Huge weapons.
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Homebrew Races: HERE Homebrew Spells: HERE Homebrew Monsters: HERE
MORE OF ME! (And platypodes/platypi/platypuses) (Extended signature)
Aura of Hate:
"Until the end of your next turn, all attacks made against that creature have Advantage."
The 2024 Paladin / 2024 Paladin subclasses have almost no interaction with their Reaction (beyond... attacking).
For the cost of a Reaction, this a free buff to you and your party that you will almost never not use.
Suggestions: You either change it to only benefit the Paladin (which is on theme) or make it:
"Until the start of your next turn..."
Giving your party the value of the feature (which is more in-line with Paladin). You might even want to place a Charisma mod / a proficiency per day limit on it (though it doesn’t really matter).
Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably go with the latter suggestion. Since the first half of the ability is a benefit available only to the Paladin, I still want there to be some buff to the aura that benefits the party. To try and keep to the theme, I am also adding the restriction that the enemy has to be within the aura to retain the benefit, which should add enough extra conditions for the buff to end early (either through your movement, the enemy's, or party members pushing/pulling it out) to not merit tagging on adding a x/day limit
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
That's fine; another thing to keep in mind that all the 2024 smites past Paladin level 1...
...give a Paladin a lot of ways to generate party-wide advantage; so feel free to make Paladin subclass features that are self-serving for any homebrew.
Side Note:
A special shout out to how awful 2024 Banishing Smite is for a Paladin exclusive 17th level spell, oh boy, did they do just about everything they could to make me never want to use this spell, because, some people forgot Paladin was a halfcaster during the Playtest. This thing competes with 9th level spells, and effectively reads "I do slightly more damage than Divine Smite."