Base Class: Paladin
Oath of the Deathlord are living beings of death, they are what becomes of paladin's who falls into temptation. They have lost what good there was in them, they are sometimes called blackguards as well.
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of the Deathlord Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work.
Oath of the Deathlord Spells
PALADIN LEVEL | SPELLS |
---|---|
3rd | False Life, Ray of Sickness |
5th | Gentle Repose, Ray of Enfeeblement |
9th | Animate Dead, Feign Death |
13th | Shadow of Moil, Death Ward |
17th | Negative Energy Flood, Enervation |
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how Channel Divinity works.
Death's Presence. You can use you Channel Divinity to exude a terrifyung presence. As an action, you can choose a number of creatures equal to your Charisma modifier, for the next hour they have advantage on any death saving throws they make. If you choose a dying creature, you can make it stable.
Unholy Strike. You can use your Channel Divinity to strike with the unholy power of death. When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to infuse your weapon attack with dark power dealing 4d8 necrotic damage, and healing you for half the necrotic damage you dealt.
Aura of Death
Starting at 7th level, you constantly emanate a menacing aura while you’re not incapacitated. The aura extends 10 feet from you in every direction, but not through total cover.
If a creature is within the aura takes necrotic damage, you can use your reaction to deal extra necrotic damage to that creature equal to twice your paladin level.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.
Vengeful Death
Starting at 15th level, when you reach 0 hit points you do not fall Unconscious, but instead keep on fighting. You take damage and make death saves as normal, when you reach 3 failed death saves you die.
Lord of Death
At 20th level, you gain the ability to harness the power of death. As an action, you can magically become an avatar of death, gaining the following benefits for 1 minute:
- You have resistance to all damage
- When you deal necrotic damage, it deals damage with one die larger. E.g. a d8 will become a d10, a d12 will become d12 + your Charisma Modifier.
- If you force a creature to make a saving throw to take half damage from necrotic damage, that creature has disadvantage.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Overall I like this, though I think there are some mechanics that don't quite work. The Aura seems overly powerful. Not even the Barbarian Zealot can put out that number. I realize that it's to balance with not being able to push out necrotic damage every round, but that's assuming you're working in a vacuum and nobody is helping them get it. Also, now paladins can get cleric cantrips via a fighting style (Tasha's), giving them access to a necrotic damage spell. Instead, have the aura increase vulnerability to necrotic damage by one step. (If immune, now they are resistant, if resistant, now they take normal, if normal, now they are vulnerable).
With that change, I'd have Lord of Death allow you to use a bonus action to change radiant damage to necrotic for that turn instead of the dice size increaser, which is honestly a bit clunky. (if I do 2d12 damage do I add charisma mod twice?)