Oath of Asceticism

The Oath of Asceticism is the recognition that we are toiling through a broken, sinful, and vile existence, and that our souls can only be made beautiful through passing them through the brutal crucibles of rigid discipline and abject denial. They hone themselves by living in pursuit of impossible standards, foregoing material pleasures in pursuit of the clarity of purpose surfaced only through making companions of pain and desire.

Ascetic Paladins are often frightful sights, deliberately taking on enormous burdens to instill in their allies the boons wrested from struggle and cleansing pains, and overwhelming their foes with terrible insights into the destructive paths of their own excess, and even forcing them to share the pain of their own self-flagellation. Their connection to their faith is intimately bound to their capacity to endure protracted and often self-inflicted suffering, and as a result they use Constitution as their spellcasting ability. 

TENETS OF ASCETICISM

The specific oaths and powers to which an Oath of Asceticism is sworn vary, but generally share these tenets. 

Denial. The mortal world is one of superfluous wants and destructive overindulgences. The pleasures of food, drink, mind altering substance, and romantic companionship - ascetics often deny these and more in pursuit of the righteous pangs of denial.

Cleansing Pain. To sit with one's suffering is to experience the divine. Ascetics practice all manner of self inflicted harms and hardships in order to more fully attune to the depths and breadths of mortal suffering.

Shared Burdens. To live is to experience hardship, and the road through that hardship is a union of burdens. Ascetics, when not deliberately embracing solitude and silence, understand that community is a way of both deepening one's capacity for taking on hardship and a way of enduring beyond the limits of one's inbuilt frailties. 

Oath Spells

3rd-level Oath of Asceticism feature

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Asceticism Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work.

Oath of Asceticism Spells

Paladin Level	Spells
3rd	absorb elements, cause fear
5th	blindness/deafness, detect thoughts
9th	enemies abound, life transference
13th	compulsion, leomund's secret chest
17th	geas, hallow

 

Creating Spell Slots. As an Ascetic Paladin, your connection to your faith and your denial of worldly comforts are one. You can transform unexpended Hit Dice into one spell slot as a bonus action on your turn. The Creating Spell Slots table shows the cost of creating a spell slot of a given level. You can create spell slots no higher in level than 5th. When you expend your Hit Dice to create Spell Slots in this way, roll them. You take radiant damage equal to the result of this roll, and cannot by any means reduce damage taken in this way. Your Hit Point maximum is reduced by the damage taken this way until you finish a long rest, unless you benefit from the effects of a Greater Restoration spell or similar magical effect.

Creating Spell Slots

Channel Divinity

3rd-level Oath of Asceticism feature

You gain the following two Channel Divinity options. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how Channel Divinity works.

Deny the Flesh. As a bonus action, you can use your Channel Divinity to self-flagellate. You bring a Divine Smite down upon yourself, and are unable to reduce damage taken in this way by any means. As you do, creatures of your choice within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, they take an amount of psychic damage equal to the damage you caused yourself, and become frightened of you for 1 minute. On a successful save they take half damage, rounded down and are not frightened. Creatures frightened in this way can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

You may add unexpended hit dice to the damage dealt by your Divine Smite using this feature. Your Hit Point total is reduced by the amount of damage you deal to yourself with these Hit Dice. Changes made in this way to your Hit Point total cannot be reduced by any means and are reset upon completion of a Long Rest.

Pain, Guiding Light. After you deal damage to a creature with your Divine Smite feature, you can use your Channel Divinity as a bonus action and embrace an echo of the harm you have caused, taking half the damage dealt on your last strike, rounded up, and instilling a bolstering humility in your allies. You gain access to a pool of temporary hit points equal to the total amount of damage dealt to your target and yourself in this way, which you can choose to divide among creatures of your choice within 30 feet.

Aura of Mortification

7th- and 18th-level Oath of Asceticism feature

Starting at 7th level, you emit an aura of guiding pain while you are not incapacitated. Your teachings on the guiding light of searing pain have taken on the weight of the divine, and harm within your aura is shared. Damage suffered by you or your allies within the aura is dealt back, reduced by half and rounded up, to enemies within the aura.

When you reach 18th level in this class, the range of the aura increases to 30 feet.

Divine Suffering

15th-level Oath of Asceticism feature

Your asceticism has unlocked profound insights around the divine tutelage of suffering. You may choose for your Divine Smites to deal maximum damage when targeting yourself with them. Damage shared through your Aura of Mortification is no longer reduced by half when its source is your Divine Smite. You cannot reduce the damage dealt to yourself this way by any means.

Icon of Denial

20th-level Oath of Asceticism feature

You have endured the righteous denial for so long that you have become an icon of true asceticism. You gain the following benefits:

• You have made the denial of material wants your eternal companion. You no longer require food, drink, or sleep to survive, but will still experience hunger, thirst, and fatigue.
• Once on each of your turns when an ally within 30 feet of you takes damage, you may give them resistance to that damage, taking damage equal to the damage reduced in this way.
• If an ally within 30 feet of you fails a death saving throw, you may use a reaction to gain a level of exhaustion to grant them a 10 on that roll.