Oath of the Githzerai

Oath of the Githerzerai

Those who swear the Oath of the Githzerai have much in common with monks.  They seek to perfect their mind and body through a combination of meditation and practical experience (i.e. adventuring).  These paladins believe that logical reasoning is the path to success and try to shun base emotions like anger and fear.

Tenets of the Githzerai

The tenets of the Oath of the Githerai are not easy to follow, as they go against the instincts of most creatures.  They revolve around casting aside unnecessary distractions.

Self-Discipline. Mastering your emotions is both your greatest challenge and greatest triumph. Your aim is not to stop feeling emotions, but rather to ensure that they do not cloud your judgement.

Enlightenment. When you have the opportunity, you should meditate to better understand yourself.  At the same time, you should look to the wider world for knowledge in all things.

Order. An orderly environment is the best way to create orderly people.  You fight to uphold lawful authority, and while no bleeding heart, know that cruelty undermines respect for law.

Frugality. Wealth has its uses, but is more often than not a source of strife.  You’d rather live in a cave than a castle.

Optional Reskinning of the Paladin class

With the GM's permission, you may make the following changes to the paladin class, starting at Level 1:

You are called a psychic knight instead of a paladin.  All class abilities that refer to Charisma use Intelligence instead.  You are proficient in Intelligence instead of Charisma saving throws.

Intimidation, Persuasion, and Religion are not class skills.  Acrobatics, Perception, and Stealth are class skills.

As part of your starting equipment, you cannot start with a priest pack.  Instead of a holy symbol, you start with a psychic symbol, a physical symbol of your psychic ideal.  You can use a psychic symbol as a spellcasting focus for your psychic knight spells.

Divine Sense is called Sentience Sense and detects creatures with an Intelligence score of 12 or higher.

Lay on Hands works differently.

Your touch can unlock within creatures a hidden endurance. You have a pool of persevering power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool, you can bestow a total number of temporary hit points equal to your paladin level × 5.

As an action, you can touch a creature and draw power from the pool to grant a number of temporary hit points to that creature, up to the number of the target’s hit dice + 5.

This feature has no effect on undead and constructs.

You gain the following ability:

Unarmored Defense

Although many psychic knights clad themselves in thick armor, others prefer to rely on their wits alone to avoid attacks. Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Intelligence modifier.

Divine Smite and Improved Divine Smite are called Mind Crush and Improved Mind Crush and deal psychic damage instead of radiant damage.  Mind Crush deals additional damage against aberrations instead of undead. Mind Crush and Improved Mind Crush deal 1d6s instead of 1d8s damage and can be used with ranged attacks.

When you select a Fighting Style, you can also choose the Archery and Two-Weapon Fighting styles as described in the Fighter class feature.

Instead of Divine Health, you gain the Trance feature, which functions as the Trance ability of an elf.  Elves that gain this feature can complete their trance in only two hours.

Instead of swearing an oath, you gain the ability to tap into a locus, a sort of psychic field generated by psionic creatures. The powers you gain depend on the type of creature that generates the locus.  Channel Divinity is called Channel Locus.

Aura of Protection is called Shielding Aura.  Aura of Courage is called Inspiring Aura.  Cleansing Touch is called Gift of Iron Will.

 

With the GM’s permission, you can change the paladin/psychic knight spell list as described below.

1st Level Spells  

Gain: Bane, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Comprehend Languages (Ritual) Dissonant Whispers, Expeditious Retreat, False Life, Feather Fall, Jump, Longstrider, Sleep, Shield, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter

Lose: Ceremony, Cure Wounds, Protection from Evil and Good, Detect Evil and Good, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Purify Food and Drink

Change: Bane (now called Scatter Psyche), Bless (now called Psychic Inspiration), Shield of Faith (now called Force Shield), Divine Favor (now called Psychic Boost and deals psychic instead of radiant damage)

 

2nd Level Spells

Gain: Crown of Madness, Detect Thoughts, Hold Person, Levitate, Mind Spike, Phantasmal Force, Suggestion

Lose: Find Steed, Lesser Restoration, Branding Smite

 

3rd Level Spells  

Gain: Bestow Curse, Clairvoyance, Enemies Abound, Fear, Fly, Hypnotic Pattern, Sending Tongues,

Lose: Create Food and Water, Daylight, Magic Circle, Remove Curse, Revivify

Change: Bestow Curse (now called Bestow Psychic Curse, and the fourth listed option deals psychic damage instead of necrotic damage), Blinding Smite (does psychic damage instead of radiant damage; the weapon glows with psychic power) Crusader’s Mantle (now called Psychic Knight’s Mantle and deals psychic instead of radiant damage)

 

4th Level Spells

Gain: Arcane Eye, Charm Monster, Confusion, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Phantasmal Killer

Lose: Aura of Life, Aura of Purity, Find Greater Steed,  

Change: Death Ward (now called Enduring Will)

 

5th Level Spells

Gain: Charm Monster, Dominate Person, Dream, Modify Memory, Rary’s Telepathic Bond (ritual), Scrying, Telekinesis, Wall of Force

Lose: Raise Dead

Change: Destructive Wave (now called Psychic Wave, deals only psychic damage, and requires a Wisdom saving throw instead of a Constitution saving throw; creatures that fail are still knocked prone as they are mentally overwhelmed), Holy Weapon (now called Mind’s Weapon and deals psychic damage instead of radiant damage, but still can blind enemies as the weapon glows with psionic energy)

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Oath of the Githzerai Spells
Paladin Level	Spells
3rd	Absorb Elements, Shield
5th	Calm Emotions, Detect Thoughts
9th	Protection from Energy, Water Walk (Ritual)
13th	Freedom of Movement, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
17th	Monastic Legacy, Wall of Force

Channel Divinity

Channel Divinity

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

From Chaos, Order. You can use your Channel Divinity to strike with supernatural accuracy and mental power. When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to gain a +5 bonus to the roll. You make this choice after you see the roll, but before the DM says whether the attack hits or misses.  If the attack hits, it deals additional psychic damage equal to your paladin level. 

Monastic Focus.  You can use your Channel Divinity to emulate the abilities of a monk.  Until the beginning of your next turn, you gain the following monk abilities. You gain the Martial Arts ability of a monk and deal damage with unarmed strikes as if your paladin levels were monk levels.  At 6th level, you gain the Ki-Empowered Strikes feature. You gain the Deflect Missiles feature, substituting your paladin level for your monk level.  You gain the Ki feature and have 2 ki points.  Finally, choose one monastic tradition.  You gain the features of that tradition for a monk of 3rd level.  Each time you use this feature, you can select a different monastic tradition.  If the monastic tradition gives you abilities that require a saving throw, the DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.  Using this feature requires no action.   

Iron Mind Aura

Starting at 7th level, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you can't be charmed while you are conscious.

At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Githzerai Soul

By 15th level, you have learned much of the githzerai's lore.

You know the Mage Hand cantrip, and the hand is invisible when you cast it.  If you already have this ability, you can move the hand up to 60 feet away from you.

You gain the True Shield ability. As a reaction, you can make a powerful shield spring around you, giving you resistance to all damage and advantage on all saving throws until the end of your next turn.  You can also simultaneously cast the Shield spell.  Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Zerthimon's Focus

At 20th level, you can enter a state of intense focus originally discovered by Zerthimon, the first leader of the githzerai.. As an action, you can enter this state of heightened awareness, granting you the following benefits for 1 hour:

Once per round, you can reroll a single attack roll, saving throw, or ability check and take the higher result or make an enemy reroll an attack roll against you and take the lower result.  This does not consume your reaction.

You gain resistance to psychic damage.

This effect ends early if you fall unconscious.