Oath of The Dark Passenger

  The Dark Passenger binds a paladin not to the light of righteousness, but to a cold and calculated justice. This is an oath not to purge evil blindly, but to surgically remove it. These tenets serve as both restraint and ritual, meant to contain the dark urges within.

These Paladins share the following tenets:

• Take Only the Guilty: “Do not kill the innocent, no matter how strong the urge. Your darkness is not and should not be your master, its your tool. The only exceptions are in cases of self defense and following through with the second tenant.”
• Leave No Trace: “Do not get caught by the authorities. Clean up and be meticulous.”
• Control the Passenger: “The dark urge is always there. It is not your guide, but your burden.”

  If the paladin strays from these tenets, kills an innocent for a reason that the tenants don't allow for, reveals their true nature to the law, let's the Dark Passenger control them, they may suffer consequences (mechanical or roleplay-based, at DM discretion):

• Loss of class features until redemption
• Influence from the Passenger grows stronger (DM can roleplay it)

Level 3: Dark Passenger Spells

  The magic of your oath ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Paladin level specified in the Dark Passenger Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.

Paladin Level	Spells
3rd	Disguise Self, Detect Thoughts
5th	Hold Person, Zone of Truth
9th	Vampiric Touch, Major Image
13th	Greater Invisibility, Phantasmal Killer
17th	Dominate Person, Modify Memory

Level 3: Calculated Mind

Surgical Instinct: "When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet fails a Wisdom or Intelligence saving throw, you can use your reaction to expend your Channel Divinity and grant that roll a +5 bonus, potentially turning failure into success. Alternatively, when a creature within 30 feet makes an attack roll, you may expend your Channel Divinity as a reaction to grant it a +5 bonus. You can choose to use this feature after the roll is made, but before the outcome is known."

Focused Analysis: "As an action, you can expend your Channel Divinity to enter a hyper-focused mental state. For the next hour, you gain a +5 bonus to Wisdom (Insight) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks. This effect ends early if you are incapacitated, take a long rest, or use this feature again."

Level 7: Dead Calm

You’ve trained yourself to suppress emotion so completely that you can enter a state of pure, cold logic. As a bonus action, you may activate Dead Calm, granting yourself immunity to the Charmed and Frightened conditions for 10 minutes. You can activate this feature even while you are currently Charmed or Frightened, immediately ending those conditions on yourself.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. While Dead Calm is active, you suffer a –10 penalty to Charisma (Persuasion) and Charisma (Deception) checks, as your cold detachment makes you seem disturbingly emotionless or off-putting.

Level 15: Surgical Execution

When a creature within 5 feet of you is incapacitated, restrained, paralyzed, or surprised, you can choose to strike with perfect, lethal precision. When you hit that creature with a melee weapon attack, you can choose to activate Surgical Execution, dealing maximum damage instead of rolling.

If the target is a creature that you know has committed an evil act (as determined by the DM), it must also succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC = 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Charisma modifier) or be reduced to 0 hit points outright. Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a Channel Divinity to use it again.

Release the Dark Passenger

At 20th level, you can fully release the dark force within you, the Dark Passenger, harnessing its ruthless focus and inhuman calm for a short time. As a bonus action, you enter a state of heightened clarity and precision for 1 minute. For the duration, you gain the following benefits:

• You are immune to being charmed, frightened, or stunned.
• You score a critical hit on a roll of 18–20.
• Once per turn when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can deal additional necrotic or psychic damage equal to your Paladin level. If the target is guilty of committing a significant evil act (DM’s discretion), this damage is maximized.
• If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points during this state, you can use your reaction to activate Dead Calm without expending a use.

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