Hey, I created a paladin subclass, this one is also a death themed subclass, like the Oathbreaker, but instead of being one that encourages undeath and is evil, it is much more like the Grave Cleric than the Oathbreaker Paladin. They often serve the gods of death, and work to preserve balance in the afterlife system. They hate most undead, and use necrotic damage to power their attacks.
The Oath of Souls is sworn by individuals who wish to assist the deceased, the undead, and others who should be dead pass on into the afterlife. Also known as Spirit Guides or Death Watchers, these paladins typically swear themselves to deities of the afterlife, but can instead vow only to cause death to come to those that should be dead.
Death Watchers dedicate themselves to maintaining the strict line between death and life, and they typically are not fond of resurrection or reanimation magic due to this. They don't have any ire for zombies, skeletons, and other soulless undead, as they are mere animations of dead creatures, but they do hate incorporeal undead and other undead that have souls. They hunt and destroy ghosts, liches, death knights, and other undead that retain their souls, and they do the same for those who have cheated death. They tend to serve death gods, such as the Raven Queen, Hades, Thanatos, Erebos, and other powers who maintain the afterlife.
TENETS OF SOULS
The tenets of the Oath of Souls uphold these paladins' vows to protect the afterlife's system and keep the dead dead.
Dead is dead. Death is the end of life, and is meant to be. Protect this balance and kill those who have died and returned, or cheated death.
Uphold the balance. The multiverse is balanced on how the afterlife functions. Protect this system with your life.
Inevitability. Death is inevitable, and cannot and must not be cheated. Destruction shall come to all those who test the strength of death and try the mechanisms of the afterlife. All must accept death or have it forced upon them.
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at level 3, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.
Cloak of Death. As a bonus action, you may expend your Channel Divinity to wreath yourself in negative energy, protecting you from the attacks of undead. This effect lasts for the next minute or until you choose to end it as a bonus action. During this time, your hit point maximum and natural ability scores cannot be reduced in any way, and if you are not already resistant to necrotic damage, you gain resistance to it. If you were already resistant to necrotic damage, during this time you have immunity to necrotic damage.
Path to the Grave. As an action, you choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you, cursing it until the end of your next turn, using your Channel Divinity. The next time you or an ally of yours hits the cursed creature with an attack, the creature has vulnerability to all of that attack’s damage, and then the curse ends.
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Souls table.
Starting at level 7, an aura of necrotic energy shields you and your allies, while also empowering your own attacks. The aura extends 10 feet in every direction, but not through total cover. You and every ally within the aura gains resistance to necrotic damage, as long as you are not incapacitated.
Additionally, whenever you deal radiant damage to a creature within this aura, you instead deal necrotic damage, and you ignore resistance to necrotic damage to creatures in this aura.
At 18th level, this aura's radius becomes 30 feet.
Harvester of Dying Breath
At 15th level, when an enemy within 60 feet of you dies, you may use your reaction to regain a use of your Channel Divinity. You may use this feature an amount of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), regaining all uses when you finish a long rest.
Keeper of Spirits
At level 20, you become a guide of the dead and dying, allowing you to harness the necrotic energy that suffuses your soul and body. As an action, you can surround your form with dying energy of those who have passed on, gaining the following benefits for the next minute:
You gain resistance to all damage.
When you deal necrotic damage to a creature, you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt.
You gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You also become incorporeal, allowing you to move through objects and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. If you end your turn inside another object or creature's space, you take 1d10 force damage that you are not resistant to.
Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
I would love feedback, thanks for reading.
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Again I LOVE it. I would play a servant of Hades (Of course a Hexblade dip would be necessary.) who has sworn to destroy those who escaped his clutches. Here is my 3cp again.
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at level 3, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.
Cloak of Death. The feel is great, the only problem is very few undead creatures I can think of deal Necrotic damage. I would make it that you have resistance to necrotic damage, and you take half damage from attacks made by Undead creatures (unless the attack deals necrotic damage). Otherwise great.
Path to the Grave. Perfect fit. Nothing else to say really.
Oath of Souls Spells
I love them. They fit perfectly. The only problem would be negative energy flood, which actually heals undead......maybe not a great Idea if you are trying to kill them...
Aura of Necrotic Power
I love it, but I would make it so that you can choose what damage type you deal or it will be a nerf rather than a buff (More things are resistant to necrotic that radiant, and you are more likely to want to deal radiant than necrotic.) Maybe you can do it both ways?
'when you deal necrotic or radiant damage, you can choose to deal either of these damage types'......you can word it better, but you get what I mean.
Harvester of Dying Breath
The first of its kind, but your Channel divinities are not that powerful. I like it, and it makes sense thematically.
Keeper of Spirits
Perfect, dont change a thing. Apart from maybe make it radiant or necrotic. Other than that dont change a thing.
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Channel Divinity: I don't know about buffing this channel divinity. It's pretty powerful if you already had resistance to necrotic damage (from an aasimar or nyxborn), and the other stuff is just to protect your from the attacks of Wights, Shadows, and other mostly undead specific attacks. I agree, Path to the Grave is perfect for paladins, it being an action is only a bit annoying.
Oath Spells: Yeah, I agree. Negative energy flood fits the flavor of this paladin, but the healing undead is annoying. Any ideas for a replacement?
Aura of Necrotic Power: The aura lets you ignore resistance to necrotic damage, so the radiant being more useful shouldn't be a problem, really. I guess I can make it so you can choose necrotic or radiant damage, though.
Harvester of Dying Breath: The reason I gave them this was because their Channel Divinity aren't super powerful. It fits in flavor for them, and is balanced.
Keeper of Spirits: Okay, I can change that. I think it's a good ability, too. Fits the "dark angel" vibe that I designed for this subclass.
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Channel Divinity: I don't know about buffing this channel divinity. It's pretty powerful if you already had resistance to necrotic damage (from an aasimar or nyxborn), and the other stuff is just to protect your from the attacks of Wights, Shadows, and other mostly undead specific attacks. I agree, Path to the Grave is perfect for paladins, it being an action is only a bit annoying.
Oath Spells: Yeah, I agree. Negative energy flood fits the flavor of this paladin, but the healing undead is annoying. Any ideas for a replacement?
Aura of Necrotic Power: The aura lets you ignore resistance to necrotic damage, so the radiant being more useful shouldn't be a problem, really. I guess I can make it so you can choose necrotic or radiant damage, though.
Harvester of Dying Breath: The reason I gave them this was because their Channel Divinity aren't super powerful. It fits in flavor for them, and is balanced.
Keeper of Spirits: Okay, I can change that. I think it's a good ability, too. Fits the "dark angel" vibe that I designed for this subclass.
you would be surprised how many undead are immune to necrotic damage. Imagine your last epic slash on a wraith doesn't work cause of your aura lol.
I agree with the channel divinity, It was mainly just for flavour, but I guess the 15th level ability makes up for that.
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Alrighty, round two: This kinda reminds me of the Grave Domain, which I think is intended? This one definitely needs the same kind of language rewrites and tech editing that the other one needs:
Cloak of Death. Needs a language pass, and I think Immunity to necrotic might be a bit much.
Path to the Grave. Needs a language pass.
Spells. They seem to work.
Aura. Having a permanent way to overcome Necrotic Resistance might be a bit much.
Harvester. Way OP, needs to be a “once per long rest” feature.
Keeper of Spirits. The name itself seems to run contra to the theme of the subclass. They are all about helping spirits move on, so “keeping” them makes not so much sense to me. Other than that I like it.
The harvester feature is not OP at all. It works quite well IMO. The first Channel is very niche, and the second costs an action. I can see this being a support type character using this feature.
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“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Yes, it was intended to be similar to the Grave Cleric.
Cloak of Death: Well, it is only immunity if you already have resistance, but I guess I can change that out. I think I'll revise this Channel Divinity a bit, maybe add the ignoring necrotic resistance to here, and then maybe move the immunity to hit point maximum and ability score reducing to the Aura. Would that be better?
Path to the Grave: If it needs a language pass, that's WotC's fault. I copied the mechanics stuff word for word from the Grave Cleric, so *shrug.*
Spells: Okay then.
Aura: Okay, I'll switch that out, probably. Any ideas, besides what I listed above?
Harvester: Okay, I personally thought it was balanced pretty well, but if you think it needs a revision, I'll change it. I don't think it should be once a long rest, as Channel Divinities recharge on a short rest. I could make it be once a short rest, so it's still pretty useful, and is more limited.
Keeper of Spirits: Okay, I'll give it a name change. Any ideas? Spirit Guide? Spectral Knight? Twilight Shepherd?
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Harvester: Okay, I personally thought it was balanced pretty well, but if you think it needs a revision, I'll change it. I don't think it should be once a long rest, as Channel Divinities recharge on a short rest. I could make it be once a short rest, so it's still pretty useful, and is more limited.
The assumption is two Short Rests per day. So a normal Paladin is expected to be able to Channel Divinity up to 3 times per Long Rest give or take. By keying Harvester to Cha mod, that means they could use it up to 8 times per Long Rest. That’s more than a 160% increase. Just sayin’.
What about someone who has been the target of a raise dead/reincarnation/ressurection, etc? I can see where that would provide some really interesting rp opportunities, but I could also see some groups arguing about it; if it’s intended that the pally would want to kill such creatures. I know rulings, not rules and all that, but if you have something in mind, you might want to add it in.
What about someone who has been the target of a raise dead/reincarnation/ressurection, etc? I can see where that would provide some really interesting rp opportunities, but I could also see some groups arguing about it; if it’s intended that the pally would want to kill such creatures. I know rulings, not rules and all that, but if you have something in mind, you might want to add it in.
Generally, these paladins don't like anyone who has cheated death, including their own buddies who use resurrection magic. Often, they will straight up kill them. This could lead to complications and in party discussions, but they are normally pretty strict about it. I could see them allowing Revivify, as it could be seen as bringing back someone who isn't really dead yet (like CPR), but otherwise, they don't like it.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
When you take this oath at level 3, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.
Cloak of Death. As a bonus action, you may expend your Channel Divinity to wreath yourself in negative energy, allowing you to more easily slay undead. For the next minute, you ignore resistance to necrotic damage, and your melee weapon attacks count as magical. During this duration, when you deal radiant damage, you may switch the damage to necrotic, or vice versa.
Path to the Grave. As an action, you choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you, cursing it until the end of your next turn, using your Channel Divinity. The next time you or an ally of yours hits the cursed creature with an attack, the creature has vulnerability to all of that attack’s damage, and then the curse ends.
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Souls table.
Starting at level 7, an aura of necrotic energy shields you and your allies, while also empowering your own attacks. As long as you are not incapacitated, you and each creature of your choice within 10 feet of you gains resistance to necrotic damage, and their hit point maximum cannot be reduced.
At 18th level, this aura's radius becomes 30 feet.
Harvester of Dying Breath
At 15th level, when an enemy within 60 feet of you dies, you may use your reaction to regain a use of your Channel Divinity. You may use this feature once, and can use it again when you finish a short rest.
Spirit Guide
At level 20, you become a guide of the dead and dying, allowing you to harness the necrotic energy that suffuses your soul and body. As an action, you can surround your form with dying energy of those who have passed on, gaining the following benefits for the next minute:
You gain resistance to all damage.
When you deal necrotic or radiant damage to a creature, you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic or radiant damage dealt.
You gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You also become incorporeal, allowing you to move through objects and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. If you end your turn inside another object or creature's space, you take 1d10 force damage that you are not resistant to.
Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
Hey, I created a paladin subclass, this one is also a death themed subclass, like the Oathbreaker, but instead of being one that encourages undeath and is evil, it is much more like the Grave Cleric than the Oathbreaker Paladin. They often serve the gods of death, and work to preserve balance in the afterlife system. They hate most undead, and use necrotic damage to power their attacks.
I would love feedback, thanks for reading.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Again I LOVE it. I would play a servant of Hades (Of course a Hexblade dip would be necessary.) who has sworn to destroy those who escaped his clutches. Here is my 3cp again.
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at level 3, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.
Cloak of Death. The feel is great, the only problem is very few undead creatures I can think of deal Necrotic damage. I would make it that you have resistance to necrotic damage, and you take half damage from attacks made by Undead creatures (unless the attack deals necrotic damage). Otherwise great.
Path to the Grave. Perfect fit. Nothing else to say really.
Oath of Souls Spells
Aura of Necrotic Power
I love it, but I would make it so that you can choose what damage type you deal or it will be a nerf rather than a buff (More things are resistant to necrotic that radiant, and you are more likely to want to deal radiant than necrotic.) Maybe you can do it both ways?
'when you deal necrotic or radiant damage, you can choose to deal either of these damage types'......you can word it better, but you get what I mean.
Harvester of Dying Breath
The first of its kind, but your Channel divinities are not that powerful. I like it, and it makes sense thematically.
Keeper of Spirits
Perfect, dont change a thing. Apart from maybe make it radiant or necrotic. Other than that dont change a thing.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Thanks again for the feedback.
Channel Divinity: I don't know about buffing this channel divinity. It's pretty powerful if you already had resistance to necrotic damage (from an aasimar or nyxborn), and the other stuff is just to protect your from the attacks of Wights, Shadows, and other mostly undead specific attacks. I agree, Path to the Grave is perfect for paladins, it being an action is only a bit annoying.
Oath Spells: Yeah, I agree. Negative energy flood fits the flavor of this paladin, but the healing undead is annoying. Any ideas for a replacement?
Aura of Necrotic Power: The aura lets you ignore resistance to necrotic damage, so the radiant being more useful shouldn't be a problem, really. I guess I can make it so you can choose necrotic or radiant damage, though.
Harvester of Dying Breath: The reason I gave them this was because their Channel Divinity aren't super powerful. It fits in flavor for them, and is balanced.
Keeper of Spirits: Okay, I can change that. I think it's a good ability, too. Fits the "dark angel" vibe that I designed for this subclass.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
you would be surprised how many undead are immune to necrotic damage. Imagine your last epic slash on a wraith doesn't work cause of your aura lol.
I agree with the channel divinity, It was mainly just for flavour, but I guess the 15th level ability makes up for that.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
I could change the aura to ignoring resistance and immunity to necrotic damage. Would that solve things, or be too powerful?
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Not ignore immunity. Way too op. Just resistance. I like this a subclass a lot and it's pretty cool. I like arcana more though 😜
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Not Immunity, that would just be broken..... Honestly, just being able to choose I think would be the easiest.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Alrighty, round two: This kinda reminds me of the Grave Domain, which I think is intended? This one definitely needs the same kind of language rewrites and tech editing that the other one needs:
Cloak of Death. Needs a language pass, and I think Immunity to necrotic might be a bit much.
Path to the Grave. Needs a language pass.
Spells. They seem to work.
Aura. Having a permanent way to overcome Necrotic Resistance might be a bit much.
Harvester. Way OP, needs to be a “once per long rest” feature.
Keeper of Spirits. The name itself seems to run contra to the theme of the subclass. They are all about helping spirits move on, so “keeping” them makes not so much sense to me. Other than that I like it.
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Okay, I'll do that, then.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
The harvester feature is not OP at all. It works quite well IMO. The first Channel is very niche, and the second costs an action. I can see this being a support type character using this feature.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Yes, it was intended to be similar to the Grave Cleric.
Cloak of Death: Well, it is only immunity if you already have resistance, but I guess I can change that out. I think I'll revise this Channel Divinity a bit, maybe add the ignoring necrotic resistance to here, and then maybe move the immunity to hit point maximum and ability score reducing to the Aura. Would that be better?
Path to the Grave: If it needs a language pass, that's WotC's fault. I copied the mechanics stuff word for word from the Grave Cleric, so *shrug.*
Spells: Okay then.
Aura: Okay, I'll switch that out, probably. Any ideas, besides what I listed above?
Harvester: Okay, I personally thought it was balanced pretty well, but if you think it needs a revision, I'll change it. I don't think it should be once a long rest, as Channel Divinities recharge on a short rest. I could make it be once a short rest, so it's still pretty useful, and is more limited.
Keeper of Spirits: Okay, I'll give it a name change. Any ideas? Spirit Guide? Spectral Knight? Twilight Shepherd?
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I Kinda like Judge Of Fate, but IDK...
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Does that surprise you?!? 😂😂 But if it’s good enough for WotC then leave it as is.
The assumption is two Short Rests per day. So a normal Paladin is expected to be able to Channel Divinity up to 3 times per Long Rest give or take. By keying Harvester to Cha mod, that means they could use it up to 8 times per Long Rest. That’s more than a 160% increase. Just sayin’.
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So, do you think once a short rest would be better, then?
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Then it would only be a 100% increase instead of 160%.
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Assuming an enemy dies in that time within 60 feet of the paladin (which is highly likely).
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
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What about someone who has been the target of a raise dead/reincarnation/ressurection, etc?
I can see where that would provide some really interesting rp opportunities, but I could also see some groups arguing about it; if it’s intended that the pally would want to kill such creatures. I know rulings, not rules and all that, but if you have something in mind, you might want to add it in.
Generally, these paladins don't like anyone who has cheated death, including their own buddies who use resurrection magic. Often, they will straight up kill them. This could lead to complications and in party discussions, but they are normally pretty strict about it. I could see them allowing Revivify, as it could be seen as bringing back someone who isn't really dead yet (like CPR), but otherwise, they don't like it.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Okay, here's the new version:
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at level 3, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.
Cloak of Death. As a bonus action, you may expend your Channel Divinity to wreath yourself in negative energy, allowing you to more easily slay undead. For the next minute, you ignore resistance to necrotic damage, and your melee weapon attacks count as magical. During this duration, when you deal radiant damage, you may switch the damage to necrotic, or vice versa.
Path to the Grave. As an action, you choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you, cursing it until the end of your next turn, using your Channel Divinity. The next time you or an ally of yours hits the cursed creature with an attack, the creature has vulnerability to all of that attack’s damage, and then the curse ends.
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Souls table.
Oath of Souls Spells
Aura of Necrotic Shielding
Starting at level 7, an aura of necrotic energy shields you and your allies, while also empowering your own attacks. As long as you are not incapacitated, you and each creature of your choice within 10 feet of you gains resistance to necrotic damage, and their hit point maximum cannot be reduced.
At 18th level, this aura's radius becomes 30 feet.
Harvester of Dying Breath
At 15th level, when an enemy within 60 feet of you dies, you may use your reaction to regain a use of your Channel Divinity. You may use this feature once, and can use it again when you finish a short rest.
Spirit Guide
At level 20, you become a guide of the dead and dying, allowing you to harness the necrotic energy that suffuses your soul and body. As an action, you can surround your form with dying energy of those who have passed on, gaining the following benefits for the next minute:
Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
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I still say you should change the name of Keeper of Spirits.
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