This Subclass was inspired by the Dragon Hunter from Guild Wars 2 and my own personal desire for a Ranged Paladin. It has never made any sense to me why we can't use Smite with ranged weapons, so I wanted to fix that.
The features are fully implemented to work with D&D Beyond character sheets, please give it a try and let me know what you think. I hope you like it.
It's overpowered and it just isn't really a paladin.
The reason why Paladin doesn't generally use ranged weapons is that Paladin is a strength based class, not a dexterity class like Ranger or Rogue, or a Strength/Dexterity class like fighter. As such Paladin doing well at range infringes on the class identities of other classes, if we don't have class identity then classes are basically a pointless concept. There really isn't a decent reason for why Paladin needs to be so good at range, each class/build has it's mix of strengths and weaknesses, for Paladin that is generally Range and Initiative. If you make Paladin Dex based then you reduce those issues but you perform slightly worse in damage and have a slight drop to AC, this basically removes most of that penalty making a ranged based Paladin out-do a melee Paladin, which is just not how it should work.
As for Paladin, it is designed to be the gritting knight in shinning armor going toe to toe against another creature, here you can do all of Paladin's damage AND do so at range, there is no cost to being at range other than you need to focus dexterity.
The level 7 Channel Divinity Dragon Fury is 2d6 of damage for an HOUR, that's quiet an insane amount really considering what Paladin already has, that feels like the bonus that some Barbarian subclasses get from raging but Paladin already has other damage boosts not available to Barbarian, like Divine Favor for example. Also just being able to get resistance like this is also very powerful considering Paladin has Aura of Protection already, one of the best features for saving throws in the game. While on paper it's not that much stronger than Sacred Weapon or Vow of Enmity, it's duration is just insanely long. Further too this, using the channel divinity again should end the condition of a previous use, right now somebody just uses 2 channel divinities 6 seconds and 12 seconds before combat, they have both and can potentially carry that into a 2nd or even 3rd encounter. I would say make it more inline with how Sacred Weapon or Vow of Enmity works, can be activated on an attack for 1 minute.
Level 15 Slayer's Tactic, really? like really... all allies in Aura of Protection can benefit from Dragon Fury? So if you have two allies in range, you're basically adding 6d6 damage per round... then on top of that you also get a reaction on top of that, it's too much.
Level 20 cap stone is very anti dragon... that's situational but then you also give a free concentration free casting of Summon Dragon, a 5th level spell, that is pretty OP'ed too, tho I don't care as much about the capstone as most campaigns never reach this to begin with.
I would say what you really want here is a fighter or ranger subclass, if it's going to be ranged like this. Fighter seems more likely too me, with just some limited spellcasting access (say as 1/day abilities) but if spellcasting is needed then ranger works better and Drakewarden already exists... altho slightly underpowered. Overall, Ranger already has enough issues, it doesn't need Paladin builds to be better than it at ranged combat and Paladin simply does not need to be ranged, it isn't what the class is designed for. Dex paladin already is able to cover that and I'd say slightly too well, adding ranged smites on top just kills off ranger as Paladin can out-perform it in both melee and range.
I'd say your understanding of what a Paladin is extremely limited to things like DnD and WoW man. Play some other games, like the one I mentioned in my post. Especially since you want to talk about the importance of Class identity in the context of a DnD Paladin, the class that has Channel Divinity despite not worshiping a divinity for their powers, gets their magic from an Oath, and uses Charisma as their main stat despite most of the most famous Paladin/Crusader characters not being charismatic at all. [Redacted]
The "Cost" to being at Range is that you do less damage. Any paladin with a Glaive, Polearm Master, and Great Weapon Master will out damage a Dragon Slayer with a Longbow every single round. The difference is that the Dragon Slayer doesn't struggle with Flying or very mobile enemies, like Dragons. [Redacted]
Yes, the Level 7 feature is a bit strong in circumstances with multiple combat encounters back-to-back like Dungeon crawls. But it's not nearly as strong as Vow of Enmity for days with only 1-2 encounters that are more than 1 hour apart. I'd consider reducing the duration to 10 minutes though, that's a good way to deal with the Dungeon crawl problem. But you're giving up damage resistance for an average of 7 damage, think about that.
The Level 15 feature is strong, yep. That's fair. I still think it's weaker than what Vengeance and Devotion get, especially in a party of mostly Spellcasters who either won't be near you or won't be using weapon attacks. Remember that Aura of Protection is a 10 foot emanation until Level 18, and most people don't reach Level 18. One thing I will say though, is that the Reaction might be too far, and personally I could do without another resource to track. When I played this in my own home games it also wasn't very useful either, since it's a Long Rest resource that relies on an ability you probably are not prioritizing. I could see removing it in Version 2 and not missing it.
If you think a free level 5 spell with no concentration at LEVEL 20, MAX LEVEL, is OP then you have never played with any Full Caster at Max Level. Wizards can alter reality and turn into dragons at Level 17 my guy. They could wipe out armies in less than a minute. Having a dragon for 1 hour a day without needing to focus on it is peanuts in comparison.
WotC killed Ranger via neglect and poor design decisions. If you need to keep other classes from being good with a bow to keep them on life-support then that's on WotC, not me. Ranger is out-damaged by every single martial in the game except for Monk and Paladin when it comes to ranged damage. Yes, even Barbarian can do more damage at range than Ranger. Every class but Monk and Paladin is actually better at range than the Ranger. Wtf is the point of bringing that up?
I made a Subclass entirely around the idea of using Smites with ranged weapons to slay big flying creatures. Why? Because it's cool, but also because Paladins have always lacked the strongest feature in the game: Versatility. Every single Paladin build is a melee fighter with magic. All of them. [Redacted]
Oh, and I forgot to mention something. The goal of the Subclass was to give the Paladin the kind of Versatility that they'd need to hunt Dragons.
That means you CAN use ranged weapons, but you don't HAVE TO. The Level 3 Feature just gives you that option without requiring you to invest into DEX and loosing the ability to Smite. It's just a massive boost to your Versatility, but it does not force you to use ranged weapons.
So if you hate the idea of a Ranged paladin so much, then the Subclass shouldn't conflict with that. Just pick up a Greatsword and go evil dragon hunting. All of the features still work.
Just know that you can now pull out a Longbow or HCB and snipe a dragon out of the sky with Thunderous Smite if you need to.
Giving the Paladin the ability to use Strength on a Longbow is overpowered, irrelevant of if there are other options. I've played many games, I just find MMORPGs on the most part to be boring, including WoW which I honestly never got into but thank you for assuming something so false. D&D is it's own system, you can try an import concepts from others but when you do so you have to have a semblance of balance, this homebrew is not in any form balanced, You can switch from a Longbow to a Greatsword with it and have no penalty for doing so and then on top of that you're giving the potential to critical hit too with smites on something that is meant to be Paladin's literal weakness, ranged. [Redacted]
Polearms are not being at "Range", they are weapons with the Range property in that they can attack from 10 foot, there is a huge difference between the 10 foot range of a Polearm and the (150/600) of a Longbow! Anybody who has played the game would know this and without feats a Greatsword, Maul, Greataxe, etc will always have a higher DPR than a Polearm, it is only one overpowered feat that makes Polearms do more damage.
Level 7
Vow of Enmity is stronger for 1 minute, you're giving a resistance or 2d6 damage per round for an HOUR, that is a vastly different bonus and can easily last multiple encounters, Vow of Enmity is going to be harder to get into every encounter in an adventuring day, unless your adventuring days are very short (i.e. only 3 encounters at level 9). Resource is a major constraint of Paladin and the limited duration plays into that heavily. If people play an adventuring day as it was designed (which I know a lot of people don't but a moot point), then a Vengeance Paladin or a Devotion Paladin isn't going to have their Channel Divinity in every encounter, if you have 6+ encounters in a day, you don't have enough Channel Divinity charges to do that.
Level 15
Not sure what you're on, Smite of Protection is not that good, you have to burn a spell slot to cast Divine Smite (the weakest smite in 2024) to gain the benefits of half cover for a single round, It can be clutch but it's very limited in that you A) need to use a bonus action, B) it lasts literally only 1 round and C) burns spell slots. Soul of Vengeance is pretty strong but still not as strong as your "Slayer Tactics", Soul of Vengeance gives another way to get reactions but there are multiple other ways to get reactions and Soul of Vengeance itself has a bunch of caveats that need to be true, it needs to be the target of your Vow of Enmity, they need to make an attack roll and it has to be a melee attack. So if you use Vow of Enmity against a BBEG that is a spellcaster that casts Synaptic Static. Well you can't use Soul of Vengeance against that. Meanwhile your "Slayer Tactics" is always usable, sure you might be in range of a party wizard or you could stand 10 foot from the party fighter and monk, or ranger and rogue, it doesn't really matter, it's extremely overpowered.
Level 20
I already said I don't care about level 20 all that much but was noting it is overpowered. Sure Casters get powerful things at high levels, but I can't think of a caster that gets a literal 5th level concentration spell... concentration free? Most level 20 capstones for Paladin last 10 minutes and aren't something that can be doubled, with what you get, somebody could cast Summon Dragon via the feature and then cast Summon Dragon again for a 2nd dragon which is concentration and then sit behind 2 spiritual dragons for an hour taking pot shots with a Longbow while in Plate armor. There is no cost too doing this, once the 2 Dragons are over, you finally pull out your Greatsword and go into Melee. [Redacted]
Your 3rd level feature not being a Channel Divinity hurts my soul. Both Pact of the blade or Shillelagh provide the basis for applying/using something other than Strength or Dexterity to weapon attacks.
Eitherway, whenever Charisma becomes your attack stat, that's magical. You can’t use your charm to aim and fire a Longbow.
At the same time, I then look at the 7th level feature, and think, this seems like a 3rd level feature (minus the bonus elemental damage dice).
I'd probably scrap the current 3rd level feature (unless you *really* want smite spells active on ranged weapons *all* the time, but you can just as easily just have your Channel Divinity do that for you with no discernible difference).
Realistically, I'd look at the elemental monk/elemental Attunement with an idea like this:
Slayer's Weapon/Enchantment/Whatever
When you take the Attack action, you can expend one use of your Channel Divinity to imbue your Ranged weapon attacks with draconic slaying power. This power lasts for 10 minutes or until you have the Incapacitated condition. You gain the following benefits while this feature is active.
Smiting Bolts. Whenever you make an Ranged weapon attack, the attack is considered an attack made with a melee weapon.
Draconic Fury (or whatever). Whenever you hit with your Ranged weapon attack, you can cause it to deal your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage rather than its normal damage type.
The 7th level feature could be:
"Greater <insert channel divinity name>"
While your <insert Channel Divinity name> is active, you have Resistance to one of the following damage types of your choice: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder. At the start of each of your turns, you can change this choice.
In addition, you add your Charisma modifier to Ranged weapon damage rolls.
Half current 15th level feature is... pointless. Your 15th level Wizard doesn't need to use his Charisma for ranged weapon attacks with a bow.
If you want to have your Aura of Protection's benefit be: using your Reaction to make weapon attacks on a target attacking your allies, just have it be that; its a 15th level feature, cha. uses per day would be bad game design (like Oath of Glory's use of cha. here is miserable game design). OoV's text, minus VoE, works fine here.
You can do whatever you want with the 20th level feature (which looks more inspired by Oath of Redemption's always on feature). I just don't know why a dragon slayer is summoning a dragon, lol.
(FEEDBACK WANTED)
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2514061-oath-of-the-dragon-slayer
This Subclass was inspired by the Dragon Hunter from Guild Wars 2 and my own personal desire for a Ranged Paladin. It has never made any sense to me why we can't use Smite with ranged weapons, so I wanted to fix that.
The features are fully implemented to work with D&D Beyond character sheets, please give it a try and let me know what you think. I hope you like it.
It's overpowered and it just isn't really a paladin.
The reason why Paladin doesn't generally use ranged weapons is that Paladin is a strength based class, not a dexterity class like Ranger or Rogue, or a Strength/Dexterity class like fighter. As such Paladin doing well at range infringes on the class identities of other classes, if we don't have class identity then classes are basically a pointless concept. There really isn't a decent reason for why Paladin needs to be so good at range, each class/build has it's mix of strengths and weaknesses, for Paladin that is generally Range and Initiative. If you make Paladin Dex based then you reduce those issues but you perform slightly worse in damage and have a slight drop to AC, this basically removes most of that penalty making a ranged based Paladin out-do a melee Paladin, which is just not how it should work.
As for Paladin, it is designed to be the gritting knight in shinning armor going toe to toe against another creature, here you can do all of Paladin's damage AND do so at range, there is no cost to being at range other than you need to focus dexterity.
The level 7 Channel Divinity Dragon Fury is 2d6 of damage for an HOUR, that's quiet an insane amount really considering what Paladin already has, that feels like the bonus that some Barbarian subclasses get from raging but Paladin already has other damage boosts not available to Barbarian, like Divine Favor for example. Also just being able to get resistance like this is also very powerful considering Paladin has Aura of Protection already, one of the best features for saving throws in the game. While on paper it's not that much stronger than Sacred Weapon or Vow of Enmity, it's duration is just insanely long. Further too this, using the channel divinity again should end the condition of a previous use, right now somebody just uses 2 channel divinities 6 seconds and 12 seconds before combat, they have both and can potentially carry that into a 2nd or even 3rd encounter. I would say make it more inline with how Sacred Weapon or Vow of Enmity works, can be activated on an attack for 1 minute.
Level 15 Slayer's Tactic, really? like really... all allies in Aura of Protection can benefit from Dragon Fury? So if you have two allies in range, you're basically adding 6d6 damage per round... then on top of that you also get a reaction on top of that, it's too much.
Level 20 cap stone is very anti dragon... that's situational but then you also give a free concentration free casting of Summon Dragon, a 5th level spell, that is pretty OP'ed too, tho I don't care as much about the capstone as most campaigns never reach this to begin with.
I would say what you really want here is a fighter or ranger subclass, if it's going to be ranged like this. Fighter seems more likely too me, with just some limited spellcasting access (say as 1/day abilities) but if spellcasting is needed then ranger works better and Drakewarden already exists... altho slightly underpowered. Overall, Ranger already has enough issues, it doesn't need Paladin builds to be better than it at ranged combat and Paladin simply does not need to be ranged, it isn't what the class is designed for. Dex paladin already is able to cover that and I'd say slightly too well, adding ranged smites on top just kills off ranger as Paladin can out-perform it in both melee and range.
I'd say your understanding of what a Paladin is extremely limited to things like DnD and WoW man. Play some other games, like the one I mentioned in my post. Especially since you want to talk about the importance of Class identity in the context of a DnD Paladin, the class that has Channel Divinity despite not worshiping a divinity for their powers, gets their magic from an Oath, and uses Charisma as their main stat despite most of the most famous Paladin/Crusader characters not being charismatic at all. [Redacted]
WotC killed Ranger via neglect and poor design decisions. If you need to keep other classes from being good with a bow to keep them on life-support then that's on WotC, not me. Ranger is out-damaged by every single martial in the game except for Monk and Paladin when it comes to ranged damage. Yes, even Barbarian can do more damage at range than Ranger. Every class but Monk and Paladin is actually better at range than the Ranger. Wtf is the point of bringing that up?
I made a Subclass entirely around the idea of using Smites with ranged weapons to slay big flying creatures. Why? Because it's cool, but also because Paladins have always lacked the strongest feature in the game: Versatility. Every single Paladin build is a melee fighter with magic. All of them. [Redacted]
Oh, and I forgot to mention something. The goal of the Subclass was to give the Paladin the kind of Versatility that they'd need to hunt Dragons.
That means you CAN use ranged weapons, but you don't HAVE TO. The Level 3 Feature just gives you that option without requiring you to invest into DEX and loosing the ability to Smite. It's just a massive boost to your Versatility, but it does not force you to use ranged weapons.
So if you hate the idea of a Ranged paladin so much, then the Subclass shouldn't conflict with that. Just pick up a Greatsword and go evil dragon hunting. All of the features still work.
Just know that you can now pull out a Longbow or HCB and snipe a dragon out of the sky with Thunderous Smite if you need to.
Giving the Paladin the ability to use Strength on a Longbow is overpowered, irrelevant of if there are other options. I've played many games, I just find MMORPGs on the most part to be boring, including WoW which I honestly never got into but thank you for assuming something so false. D&D is it's own system, you can try an import concepts from others but when you do so you have to have a semblance of balance, this homebrew is not in any form balanced, You can switch from a Longbow to a Greatsword with it and have no penalty for doing so and then on top of that you're giving the potential to critical hit too with smites on something that is meant to be Paladin's literal weakness, ranged. [Redacted]
Polearms are not being at "Range", they are weapons with the Range property in that they can attack from 10 foot, there is a huge difference between the 10 foot range of a Polearm and the (150/600) of a Longbow! Anybody who has played the game would know this and without feats a Greatsword, Maul, Greataxe, etc will always have a higher DPR than a Polearm, it is only one overpowered feat that makes Polearms do more damage.
Vow of Enmity is stronger for 1 minute, you're giving a resistance or 2d6 damage per round for an HOUR, that is a vastly different bonus and can easily last multiple encounters, Vow of Enmity is going to be harder to get into every encounter in an adventuring day, unless your adventuring days are very short (i.e. only 3 encounters at level 9). Resource is a major constraint of Paladin and the limited duration plays into that heavily. If people play an adventuring day as it was designed (which I know a lot of people don't but a moot point), then a Vengeance Paladin or a Devotion Paladin isn't going to have their Channel Divinity in every encounter, if you have 6+ encounters in a day, you don't have enough Channel Divinity charges to do that.
Not sure what you're on, Smite of Protection is not that good, you have to burn a spell slot to cast Divine Smite (the weakest smite in 2024) to gain the benefits of half cover for a single round, It can be clutch but it's very limited in that you A) need to use a bonus action, B) it lasts literally only 1 round and C) burns spell slots. Soul of Vengeance is pretty strong but still not as strong as your "Slayer Tactics", Soul of Vengeance gives another way to get reactions but there are multiple other ways to get reactions and Soul of Vengeance itself has a bunch of caveats that need to be true, it needs to be the target of your Vow of Enmity, they need to make an attack roll and it has to be a melee attack. So if you use Vow of Enmity against a BBEG that is a spellcaster that casts Synaptic Static. Well you can't use Soul of Vengeance against that. Meanwhile your "Slayer Tactics" is always usable, sure you might be in range of a party wizard or you could stand 10 foot from the party fighter and monk, or ranger and rogue, it doesn't really matter, it's extremely overpowered.
I already said I don't care about level 20 all that much but was noting it is overpowered. Sure Casters get powerful things at high levels, but I can't think of a caster that gets a literal 5th level concentration spell... concentration free? Most level 20 capstones for Paladin last 10 minutes and aren't something that can be doubled, with what you get, somebody could cast Summon Dragon via the feature and then cast Summon Dragon again for a 2nd dragon which is concentration and then sit behind 2 spiritual dragons for an hour taking pot shots with a Longbow while in Plate armor. There is no cost too doing this, once the 2 Dragons are over, you finally pull out your Greatsword and go into Melee. [Redacted]
[Redacted]
Your 3rd level feature not being a Channel Divinity hurts my soul. Both Pact of the blade or Shillelagh provide the basis for applying/using something other than Strength or Dexterity to weapon attacks.
Eitherway, whenever Charisma becomes your attack stat, that's magical. You can’t use your charm to aim and fire a Longbow.
At the same time, I then look at the 7th level feature, and think, this seems like a 3rd level feature (minus the bonus elemental damage dice).
I'd probably scrap the current 3rd level feature (unless you *really* want smite spells active on ranged weapons *all* the time, but you can just as easily just have your Channel Divinity do that for you with no discernible difference).
Realistically, I'd look at the elemental monk/elemental Attunement with an idea like this:
Slayer's Weapon/Enchantment/Whatever
When you take the Attack action, you can expend one use of your Channel Divinity to imbue your Ranged weapon attacks with draconic slaying power. This power lasts for 10 minutes or until you have the Incapacitated condition. You gain the following benefits while this feature is active.
Smiting Bolts. Whenever you make an Ranged weapon attack, the attack is considered an attack made with a melee weapon.
Draconic Fury (or whatever). Whenever you hit with your Ranged weapon attack, you can cause it to deal your choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder damage rather than its normal damage type.
The 7th level feature could be:
"Greater <insert channel divinity name>"
While your <insert Channel Divinity name> is active, you have Resistance to one of the following damage types of your choice: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder. At the start of each of your turns, you can change this choice.
In addition, you add your Charisma modifier to Ranged weapon damage rolls.
Half current 15th level feature is... pointless. Your 15th level Wizard doesn't need to use his Charisma for ranged weapon attacks with a bow.
If you want to have your Aura of Protection's benefit be: using your Reaction to make weapon attacks on a target attacking your allies, just have it be that; its a 15th level feature, cha. uses per day would be bad game design (like Oath of Glory's use of cha. here is miserable game design). OoV's text, minus VoE, works fine here.
You can do whatever you want with the 20th level feature (which looks more inspired by Oath of Redemption's always on feature). I just don't know why a dragon slayer is summoning a dragon, lol.