Oath of the Essence Keeper

All organic life teems with an unseen energy that flows through their souls, connecting us all together. The gods who cultivated life in this realm seek to protect and nurture its continued growth. However, evil exists as a blight to life's bloom. These gods do all in their power to not only uplift the life they had a hand in creating, but also defend against greater evils that seek to destroy, oppress, and take advantage of the essence that fuels this realm.

Paladins who have taken this oath are holy manipulators of the life force that courses throughout. These paladins do their best to help those in need and abhor violence in any way. Though they are far from incapable, those that would prey on the weak should fear the retribution which these paladins are authorized to deliver.

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Oath of the Essence Keeper Spells

Channel Divinity

When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Life Sensitivity: As an action, you can use your Channel Divinity to find those in need. You become sensitive to the life force of other creatures. As an action, you can describe or name a specific creature within 25 miles that isn't undead or a construct. For the next ten minutes, you know the general direction they are in but not their exact location. If the creature is in motion, you know the direction of its movement.

Starting at 15th level, if a creature targeted by Life Sensitivity is within 5 miles you know the precise location of the creature.

Essence Keeper: As a bonus action, you can use Channel Divinity to siphon the life force of your enemies. For 1 minute whenever you deal damage with a melee weapon attack to a hostile creature, you create a sphere of light, which orbits within 5 feet of you. You can have a number of spheres equal to half of your class level rounded up orbiting you at one time. The spheres are intangible and invulnerable, and persist for 8 hours, or until expended. A sphere emits a dim light in a 10-foot radius.

 As a bonus action you may expend any number of spheres to restore 1d6 hit points per sphere to another creature you can see within 30 feet. Alternatively, you can absorb one orb yourself, restoring your hit points by 6.

Aura of Perception

Starting at 7th level, You emanate an aura that amplifies your sensitivity to the life forces that surround you. While you’re not incapacitated you can target creatures within your aura with spells and attack rolls even if you can not see them. You do not need to see the creature even if the spell requires sight.

You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect stealth within your aura. And you now ignore disadvantage posed by invisibility when targeting creatures within your aura.

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

Selfless Casting

Beginning at 15th level, you learn to convert life force into other forms of energy. As a bonus action, you may sacrifice life to cast spells. You may absorb one sphere and reduce your hit points by 5 + the level of the desired spell slot to cast a spell instead of using a spell slot.

Righteous Keeper

When you reach level 20, there is a vitality, a life force, an essence, that is translated through you into power. You may, as an action, tap into that energy and you gain the following benefits for 1 minute:

When you strike a creature with a melee weapon attack while you have Essence Keeper active, and that creature has 100 hit points or fewer it must make a Constitution saving throw or it dies instantly. This effect cannot occur more than once per turn.

If you are reduced to 0 hit points and you have any spheres orbiting your body, they are all immediately expended, and you are reduced to 1 hit point instead. This effect can occur only once per long rest.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.