So for a campaign I play as Andrus, a Tiefling Paladin of the Raven Queen, I talked with my DM about creating a custom Oath, because we had a member of the party who was Undead, and I was afraid any other Oath's would force me to do combat with her. Looking back it was a pretty dumb reasoning, but I was afraid if by not doing battle with all Undead I came across Andrus would lose favor with his Queen. And I made Andrus' backstory a bit different than most Paladin, I think, as he wasn't born with a connection to divine power, he spent his entire life training to be a city watchmen, training in swordsmen ship, not magic. He became a Paladin during a battle his unit went against a necromancer, the battle was going terrible, and after watching his friends die, he shouted to the Raven Queen offering his life to her service if she would only give him power to strike down those who be her enemies. And from the way me and my DM have an understanding of the Raven Queen, she is not a fan of people becoming undead so we both agreed it would make sense that she'd want her Paladins to take up arms to prevent people from becoming undead, and shelter life. So we built an Oath that would do that.
Oath of the Grave Warden
Those that take up this Oath serve to nurture life and protect all things from the cruelty of undeath. While the paladin understands all lives must end, it is the paladin’s job to ensure that a life is not ended prematurely, whether it be healing a sickly youth, or protecting a hapless citizen from a group of bandits, the Paladin will defend life. However, Paladin’s under this oath are expected by their deities to seek out those who would try to extend their life through unnatural means, and punish them with little mercy. Throughout time these Paladin’s have been simply called the Wardens, but can be easily mistaken for either dark knight or death knights, and can behave very similarly to Vengeance Paladins. Paladins of this Oath are not discouraged for participating in resurrection spells, so long as they convince their deity to help.
Tenets of the Grave Warden
The tenets of the Grave Warden’s are often revealed to a Paladin once they make their Oath, requiring them to commune with their deity in some fashion, whether it be through a dream or the knowledge implanted by the deity themselves. The oath stress the importance of protecting the warmth of life, and allowing it to flicker into the cold embrace of death, and punishing those who insult the very essence of this natural process via necrotic means.
Death is The Natural End. Death is the natural end to life, it is not something to be feared, or pity. Spread this knowledge to those don’t understand. Let the dead rest, and ease the dying’s suffering.
Kindle Life. Life is a precious gift, so those who haven’t fully grown must be kept alive in order to enjoy this gift. Protect those that can inspire others to live greatly.
Punish the Arrogant. Pursue those who would use unnatural means to extend their lives, and show them the arrogance of their ways, by sending them into the afterlife.
Purify the Unholy. Should you come across any undead, and it is within your power, you must free their soul and send them to the afterlife. However, if it wishes to protect the living, cautiously work with it.
Oath Spells
You also learn the cantrip Spare the Dying, along with Oath spells listed below.
Paladin level Spells
3rd lvl Armor of Agathys, Healing Word
5th lvlGentle Repose, Lesser Restoration
9th lvl Speak with Dead, Slow
13th lvlStoneskin, Fire Wall
17th lvlDestructive Wave, Antilife Shell
Channel Divinity
When you take up the Oath of the Grave Warden you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Warden’s Armor. Declaring a prayer to your chosen deity, for 1 minute any undead creature or necrotic spells against you have disadvantage. This takes one full action. Requires a long rest to reuse.
Warden’s Blessing. As a bonus action you can hold your holy symbol, offer a prayer and select an ally within 30 ft of your vision, and grant resistance to cold for 1 minute. Can be reused after a rest. At 18 Level this extends to 60 feet.
Aura of Preservation
At 7th level you and allies within 10 feet of you have resistance to necrotic damage and you are immune to disease. You must be conscious for this effect to be active. At 18th level the aura extends to 30 ft.
Shelter the Living
At 15th level, whenever an ally within 30 ft of you is reduced to 0 HP you can use your reaction to make it drop to 1 HP instead. This ability does not work on undead or constructs, and each ally can only be targeted by this ability once, until a long rest.
Warding Angel
At level 20 you assume the form of an angel dawned in armor with the symbol of your deity. This transformation last for 2 minutes, and you gain the following benefits:
You sprout wings from your back that grant you 60ft of flight movement.
The warden armor grants you resistance to necrotic and cold.
You regain 10 hit points at the start of your turn.
This feature cannot be used again until you attain a long rest.
Apparently "Tiefling Paladin serving a Death God" is just a dope template, cause that's exactly what I play in my home game! I absolutely love this, currently my boi Halloway is Oath of Vengeance, but I think I'm gonna talk to my DM and start taking steps to change his oath to this. Thank you for creating such a nuanced subclass. I've been looking for a Paladin version of "Grave Cleric" and this seems to be a perfect fit.
Bit of a nerco-post there RaylandWeirgone (but appropriate? 😄), as it's from before I even joined the site proper, but I actually really like this homebrew! I'm curious whether the OP is still around and if they ever made it into a playable homebrew sub-class?
There are a couple of things that are worded a little strangely, but it seems like it'd be a solid oath to play mechanically.
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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So for a campaign I play as Andrus, a Tiefling Paladin of the Raven Queen, I talked with my DM about creating a custom Oath, because we had a member of the party who was Undead, and I was afraid any other Oath's would force me to do combat with her. Looking back it was a pretty dumb reasoning, but I was afraid if by not doing battle with all Undead I came across Andrus would lose favor with his Queen. And I made Andrus' backstory a bit different than most Paladin, I think, as he wasn't born with a connection to divine power, he spent his entire life training to be a city watchmen, training in swordsmen ship, not magic. He became a Paladin during a battle his unit went against a necromancer, the battle was going terrible, and after watching his friends die, he shouted to the Raven Queen offering his life to her service if she would only give him power to strike down those who be her enemies. And from the way me and my DM have an understanding of the Raven Queen, she is not a fan of people becoming undead so we both agreed it would make sense that she'd want her Paladins to take up arms to prevent people from becoming undead, and shelter life. So we built an Oath that would do that.
Oath of the Grave Warden
Those that take up this Oath serve to nurture life and protect all things from the cruelty of undeath. While the paladin understands all lives must end, it is the paladin’s job to ensure that a life is not ended prematurely, whether it be healing a sickly youth, or protecting a hapless citizen from a group of bandits, the Paladin will defend life. However, Paladin’s under this oath are expected by their deities to seek out those who would try to extend their life through unnatural means, and punish them with little mercy. Throughout time these Paladin’s have been simply called the Wardens, but can be easily mistaken for either dark knight or death knights, and can behave very similarly to Vengeance Paladins. Paladins of this Oath are not discouraged for participating in resurrection spells, so long as they convince their deity to help.
Tenets of the Grave Warden
The tenets of the Grave Warden’s are often revealed to a Paladin once they make their Oath, requiring them to commune with their deity in some fashion, whether it be through a dream or the knowledge implanted by the deity themselves. The oath stress the importance of protecting the warmth of life, and allowing it to flicker into the cold embrace of death, and punishing those who insult the very essence of this natural process via necrotic means.
Death is The Natural End. Death is the natural end to life, it is not something to be feared, or pity. Spread this knowledge to those don’t understand. Let the dead rest, and ease the dying’s suffering.
Kindle Life. Life is a precious gift, so those who haven’t fully grown must be kept alive in order to enjoy this gift. Protect those that can inspire others to live greatly.
Punish the Arrogant. Pursue those who would use unnatural means to extend their lives, and show them the arrogance of their ways, by sending them into the afterlife.
Purify the Unholy. Should you come across any undead, and it is within your power, you must free their soul and send them to the afterlife. However, if it wishes to protect the living, cautiously work with it.
Oath Spells
You also learn the cantrip Spare the Dying, along with Oath spells listed below.
Paladin level Spells
3rd lvl Armor of Agathys, Healing Word
5th lvl Gentle Repose, Lesser Restoration
9th lvl Speak with Dead, Slow
13th lvl Stoneskin, Fire Wall
17th lvl Destructive Wave, Antilife Shell
Channel Divinity
When you take up the Oath of the Grave Warden you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Warden’s Armor. Declaring a prayer to your chosen deity, for 1 minute any undead creature or necrotic spells against you have disadvantage. This takes one full action. Requires a long rest to reuse.
Warden’s Blessing. As a bonus action you can hold your holy symbol, offer a prayer and select an ally within 30 ft of your vision, and grant resistance to cold for 1 minute. Can be reused after a rest. At 18 Level this extends to 60 feet.
Aura of Preservation
At 7th level you and allies within 10 feet of you have resistance to necrotic damage and you are immune to disease. You must be conscious for this effect to be active. At 18th level the aura extends to 30 ft.
Shelter the Living
At 15th level, whenever an ally within 30 ft of you is reduced to 0 HP you can use your reaction to make it drop to 1 HP instead. This ability does not work on undead or constructs, and each ally can only be targeted by this ability once, until a long rest.
Warding Angel
At level 20 you assume the form of an angel dawned in armor with the symbol of your deity. This transformation last for 2 minutes, and you gain the following benefits:
This feature cannot be used again until you attain a long rest.
Apparently "Tiefling Paladin serving a Death God" is just a dope template, cause that's exactly what I play in my home game! I absolutely love this, currently my boi Halloway is Oath of Vengeance, but I think I'm gonna talk to my DM and start taking steps to change his oath to this. Thank you for creating such a nuanced subclass. I've been looking for a Paladin version of "Grave Cleric" and this seems to be a perfect fit.
Bit of a nerco-post there RaylandWeirgone (but appropriate? 😄), as it's from before I even joined the site proper, but I actually really like this homebrew! I'm curious whether the OP is still around and if they ever made it into a playable homebrew sub-class?
There are a couple of things that are worded a little strangely, but it seems like it'd be a solid oath to play mechanically.
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.