In response to some discussion about Oathbreaker and Paladins breaking their oaths, I decided to take a stab at making an "oath of atonement", intended for a Paladin who broken another oath but sworn to atone for what they did, with the eventual aim of reclaiming their former oath.
After your failure to uphold your former oath, you have lost the blessings granted by the god(s) that previously favoured you. As a result you are unable to use your Divine Smite ability, and your Lay On Hands ability may only be used upon others.
Instead, whenever you take a meaningful act in accordance with one of the tenets of your former oath, you gain one use of Divine Smite. You can retain up to half your Paladin level (rounded up) in Divine Smite uses. You will lose 1d6 unused Divine Smite uses at dawn each day, and will immediately lose all uses if you take any action that goes against the tenets of your former oath.
What qualifies as a meaningful act, or an act of defiance, is up to your DM, but should be appropriate to the oath you seek to renew. For example, a former Oath of the Ancients Paladin might gain a Divine Smite use for protecting nature at risk to themselves or attacking someone who would harm nature, while a former Oath of Redemption Paladin might gain a use by showing restraint when violence would have been the easier path.
Balancing Atonement
The intention of this feature is that a Paladin who upholds the tenets of their former oath at every opportunity should be able to maintain a reasonable supply of Divine Smite uses, while one who shirks in that responsibility will quickly run out. Whether this means the Paladin can smite as frequently as they used to or not is for the player and the DM to decide based on the level of punishment they seek to represent.
Aura of Penance
7th- and 18th-level Oath of Atonement feature
When a creature is targeted by an attack or effect within 10 feet of you, you may force the attacker to make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, the attacker must instead target you.
On a successful save, if the creature takes damage you may choose to reduce the damage by half (rounded up) and take the same damage as well – damage that you take in this way cannot be reduced by any means.
When you reach 18th level in this class, the range of the aura increases to 30 feet.
Path to Forgiveness
15th-level Oath of Atonement feature
When you take a significant act in accordance with your former oath, you may now choose to spend one use of your Channel Divinity to gain 1d3 + 1 uses of Divine Smite instead of the normal one use. In addition, if the act requires an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, you may roll it with advantage.
Forgiven
20th-level Oath of Atonement feature
Your path to forgiveness is complete, and all that remains is for you to finally forgive yourself and renew your former oath. By spending a short rest, or at least one hour of a long rest, in meditation or prayer, you may repeat your vows before witnesses in order to pledge yourself once more to your former oath. To renew your oath in this way you must have spent at least 30 days as an Oath of Atonement Paladin.
Once this is done you must change your sub-class to one representing the oath you sought to renew. For renewing your oath you also gain one free use of Channel Divinity, this additional use remains until you spend it, or until you break your oath once more.
Notes
This sub-class is not intended to be balanced; it effectively loses its ability to Divine Smite or Lay on Hands itself, and instead has a mechanic whereby it can gain Divine Smite uses by making "meaningful acts" in accordance with its former oath. Basically to keep smiting, the Paladin must really throw itself into its former oath, otherwise it will be weakened quite substantially, especially as it also lacks any Channel Divinity features before 15th-level. And while the Aura of Penance is a potentially very good tanking ability, it's not without cost when you can no longer heal yourself for "free".
It's not actually required to reach 20th-level in this class to atone, that can happen at any time at DM discretion, I just thought it would be strange to have an "atonement avatar" form and that it might be interesting to have an explicit ability to change your sub-class back at this point, as there shouldn't really be much more atoning you can do at this stage. The free extra use of Channel Divinity is just an extra little reward for sticking it out to this point, but not so strong you'd be tempted to keep breaking and renewing your oath.
I struggled a bit with the spell list given the limitations of SRD content only; it's sort of a mixture of shame/helping others and general utility, with commune at 17th-level with the idea being that your former deity/pantheon/whatever is now once more willing to tell you what you must do to complete your atonement.
It's very much a rough first effort, but I'm curious for any early feedback!
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I like it conceptually, but the penalty does feel pretty stiff - you not only lose Divine Smite and some of Lay on Hands, but all of Channel Divinity as well (until 15th which might as well be forever in 95% of games). These are the bulk of your class features until level 7, so while Seek Atonement is a great RP hook I worry that there's just not a lot of options for this character outside of the obvious one. Perhaps Seek Atonement could be an additional feature rather than replacing CD altogether, and an act of atonement could recharge DS or CD. Then as a player you'd have a little more to work with.
I like it conceptually, but the penalty does feel pretty stiff - you not only lose Divine Smite and some of Lay on Hands, but all of Channel Divinity as well (until 15th which might as well be forever in 95% of games). These are the bulk of your class features until level 7, so while Seek Atonement is a great RP hook I worry that there's just not a lot of options for this character outside of the obvious one. Perhaps Seek Atonement could be an additional feature rather than replacing CD altogether, and an act of atonement could recharge DS or CD. Then as a player you'd have a little more to work with.
Is the loss of Channel Divinity all that severe? A few Paladin oaths have pretty "meh" Channel Divinity powers, or at least highly situation ones. For example Oath of Ancients' Nature's Wrath is really just a much worse entangle as it has terrible range, only affects one target, and they can free themselves from it for free (no action required).
Turn the Faithless can be okay if you encounter the specific creatures required but fey and fiends tend to be more resistant than undead. There are a lot of Channel Divinity powers that require your action which makes them more difficult to use. There are definitely channel divinities you might miss more, but then that's a good reason not to break your oath. 😉
I dunno, it feels weird to be able to use Channel Divinity while in breach of an oath, and the intention isn't necessarily to be balanced against having an active oath. I'll have a think about something else at third level to try to compensate a bit, but you still have normal use of your spell slots so I'm not sure it's a biggy really. The intention is that Seek Atonement means you still can use Divine Smite but you have to work at it a bit, and you can use Lay On Hands but only to help others, so it's not lost as such.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
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In response to some discussion about Oathbreaker and Paladins breaking their oaths, I decided to take a stab at making an "oath of atonement", intended for a Paladin who broken another oath but sworn to atone for what they did, with the eventual aim of reclaiming their former oath.
The road to atone for breaking your former oath may be a long and difficult one…
Oath Spells
3rd-level Oath of Atonement feature
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Atonement Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work.
Oath of Atonement Spells
3rd
disguise self, sanctuary
5th
enthrall, warding bond
9th
remove curse, speak with dead
13th
banishment, fabricate
17th
commune, dispel evil and good
Seek Atonement
3rd-level Oath of Atonement feature
After your failure to uphold your former oath, you have lost the blessings granted by the god(s) that previously favoured you. As a result you are unable to use your Divine Smite ability, and your Lay On Hands ability may only be used upon others.
Instead, whenever you take a meaningful act in accordance with one of the tenets of your former oath, you gain one use of Divine Smite. You can retain up to half your Paladin level (rounded up) in Divine Smite uses. You will lose 1d6 unused Divine Smite uses at dawn each day, and will immediately lose all uses if you take any action that goes against the tenets of your former oath.
What qualifies as a meaningful act, or an act of defiance, is up to your DM, but should be appropriate to the oath you seek to renew. For example, a former Oath of the Ancients Paladin might gain a Divine Smite use for protecting nature at risk to themselves or attacking someone who would harm nature, while a former Oath of Redemption Paladin might gain a use by showing restraint when violence would have been the easier path.
Aura of Penance
7th- and 18th-level Oath of Atonement feature
When a creature is targeted by an attack or effect within 10 feet of you, you may force the attacker to make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, the attacker must instead target you.
On a successful save, if the creature takes damage you may choose to reduce the damage by half (rounded up) and take the same damage as well – damage that you take in this way cannot be reduced by any means.
When you reach 18th level in this class, the range of the aura increases to 30 feet.
Path to Forgiveness
15th-level Oath of Atonement feature
When you take a significant act in accordance with your former oath, you may now choose to spend one use of your Channel Divinity to gain 1d3 + 1 uses of Divine Smite instead of the normal one use. In addition, if the act requires an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, you may roll it with advantage.
Forgiven
20th-level Oath of Atonement feature
Your path to forgiveness is complete, and all that remains is for you to finally forgive yourself and renew your former oath. By spending a short rest, or at least one hour of a long rest, in meditation or prayer, you may repeat your vows before witnesses in order to pledge yourself once more to your former oath. To renew your oath in this way you must have spent at least 30 days as an Oath of Atonement Paladin.
Once this is done you must change your sub-class to one representing the oath you sought to renew. For renewing your oath you also gain one free use of Channel Divinity, this additional use remains until you spend it, or until you break your oath once more.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I like it conceptually, but the penalty does feel pretty stiff - you not only lose Divine Smite and some of Lay on Hands, but all of Channel Divinity as well (until 15th which might as well be forever in 95% of games). These are the bulk of your class features until level 7, so while Seek Atonement is a great RP hook I worry that there's just not a lot of options for this character outside of the obvious one. Perhaps Seek Atonement could be an additional feature rather than replacing CD altogether, and an act of atonement could recharge DS or CD. Then as a player you'd have a little more to work with.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Is the loss of Channel Divinity all that severe? A few Paladin oaths have pretty "meh" Channel Divinity powers, or at least highly situation ones. For example Oath of Ancients' Nature's Wrath is really just a much worse entangle as it has terrible range, only affects one target, and they can free themselves from it for free (no action required).
Turn the Faithless can be okay if you encounter the specific creatures required but fey and fiends tend to be more resistant than undead. There are a lot of Channel Divinity powers that require your action which makes them more difficult to use. There are definitely channel divinities you might miss more, but then that's a good reason not to break your oath. 😉
I dunno, it feels weird to be able to use Channel Divinity while in breach of an oath, and the intention isn't necessarily to be balanced against having an active oath. I'll have a think about something else at third level to try to compensate a bit, but you still have normal use of your spell slots so I'm not sure it's a biggy really. The intention is that Seek Atonement means you still can use Divine Smite but you have to work at it a bit, and you can use Lay On Hands but only to help others, so it's not lost as such.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.