Oath of Antiquity

The Oath of Antiquity is sworn by paladins who revere history in all its forms. Relics, holy sites, manuscripts and oral traditions...all hold value that could be forever lost in the wake left by the haste of the careless. These paladins are part scholar and part warrior, longing to explore forgotten places so that they might secure and preserve the history found within.

In the pursuit of their oath, Oath of Antiquity paladins must occasional bend rules or obscure the true nature of their quests. However, such deviations are never done for personal gain.

These paladins share the following tenets:

• Preserve, but never plunder

• Enshrine the irreplaceable treasures of the past in places of security

• Share the knowledge of the past

Level 3: Oath of Antiquity Spells

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

Oath of Antiquity Spells

Paladin Level	Spells
3	Comprehend Languages, Identify
5	Augury, Find Traps
9	Speak with Dead, Tongues
13	Divination, Leomund's Secret Chest
17	Commune, Legend Lore

Level 3: Sepulchral Explorer

As a Magic action, you can expend one use of your Channel Divinity to protect allies against traps, mechanical devices, crumbling structures, or similar dangers. You may grant this benefit to allies within 30’ (including you). When subject to an effect that allows you to make a saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw and only half damage if you fail.

 Additionally, you gain proficiency with Archaeologists’ Tools. These tools bear a striking similarity to Thieves’ Tools, but any reputable scholar can easily tell the difference between them. (Archaeologists’ Tools function as Thieves’ Tools.)

Level 7: Aura of Perfection

Exposure to ancient divine magics has imbued upon you a heightened constitution that resists effects that might pollute it. While within your Aura of Protection, you and allies gain advantage against saving throws against poison, disease, unnatural aging, or any effect that would forcibly change your form (such as a hostile Polymorph spell). Additionally, you—but not your allies—are entirely immune to the natural effects of aging, until your natural lifespan is spent and death takes you.

Level 15: Forgotten Wisdom

Upon smiting a foe with resistance to the damage you deal, you may use your Reaction draw upon your vast knowledge of history to recall your enemy’s secret vulnerabilities. For 1 minute, your Smites (and the attacks that trigger them) ignore the target’s resistances, dealing full damage to it. The Smite that triggered this ability benefits from its effects. You may not use this ability again until you have completed a short rest.

Level 20: Better Left Forgotten

With a Magic action you invoke forbidden knowledge, perhaps by unleashing the fell power of a terrible relic or speaking a word of doom from a dead language. This ability may be used once per long rest and lasts for 1 minute. All enemies within your Aura of Protection suffer the following effects:

Visage of the end. When first exposed to your aura, all enemies must make an Intelligence saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma bonus) or have the Paralyzed condition for the duration. At the end of each of its turns, the target repeats the save, ending the condition on itself on a success. Once a creature has succeeded against a saving throw against Visage of Doom, it is immune to the effect until after you have taken a long rest.

Ravening spirits. Dread images flit about you, tearing at your enemies as they pass. At the start of your turn, all enemies affected take 1d6 radiant and 1d6 necrotic damage. Each time an enemy takes damage from this ability, both types of damage increase by 1d6. Any enemy reduced to 0 is consumed utterly, melting away into nothing.

Caught unaware. Enemies who fail their saving throw against Vision of the end are enraptured by the terrible beauty of your Ravening Spirits. Against these foes, the damage of Ravening Spirits is upgraded from d6’s to d8’s. This vulnerability remains even if a later save frees them from the Paralyzed condition.