Oath of the Midwinter

Paladins of the Midwinter dedicate themselves to destroying the greatest monsters and abominations who stalk the land. They typically come from the colder regions, where the myths of the Midwinter originated. The Midwinter are spectral knights of shadow and frost from folklore that bring winter storms and cleanse the land of monsters and villains alike. If a neighbor mysteriously died in their home during a harsh winter, it was said that the Midwinter must have come for them. They were originally conceived to frighten children into behaving, but a few paladins saw that as wasting the myth's potential. They adhered to the core tenets of the Midwinter and made it real. They draw their power from their conviction against those that chose to cause harm on a grand scale.

Tenets of the Midwinter

• Choice: There's always a choice to be made. It's those choices, not who or what we are, that make us monsters.
• Killing monsters: Monsters do not show mercy and deserve none. They deserve a sharp blade and a swift end.
• Pick your battles: The longer you're alive, the more good you can do for the world. You can't protect the innocent if you're dead.
• Greater Evil: If you're forced to choose between more than one evil, fight the greatest.

Touch of Frost

When you take this oath at 3rd level, you take on certain aspects of the mythical Midwinter. Your eyes may become darker or even glow a light blue. Your skin may feel colder to the touch. You gain darkvision up to 60 feet, or an additional 30 feet of darkvision if you already have darkvision. You gain resistance to cold damage.

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of the Midwinter Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work.

Oath of the Midwinter Spells

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.

Chilling Presence. You can use your Channel Divinity to exude a cold presence. As an action, you force one creature of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature becomes intimidated by you for 1 minute. The intimidated creature feels the judgement of the paladin, and if they have sins they are hiding, they reveal those sins to the paladin. The DM can decide how much or how little information to reveal and how to word the confession. After 1 minute or once the confession is over, the effect ends and the creatures can make an Insight check to determine if they will write their confession off as a moment of weakness and fear or if they will realize that the paladin influenced them magically. The saving throws must beat your spell save DC.

Smite of Frost. You can use your channel divinity to deliver an earth shattering blow. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you may use channel divinity to activate your Divine Smite without expending a spell slot. The smite is cast as if using a spell slot level of 1 + 1/4 of your character level, ignoring the divine smite 5d8 maximum. In addition, the damage die for the smite becomes a d10, and if the creature is an aberration, fiend, undead, or monstrosity, the damage die becomes a d12. All smite damage (not including improved divine smite) is also converted to cold damage for the next minute or until you end the effect as a free action.

Aura of Frost

Starting at 7th level, you constantly emanate a chilling aura while you’re not incapacitated. The aura extends 10 feet from you in every direction, but not through total cover. You and any friendly creatures within 10 feet you have resistance to cold and necrotic damage. In addition, any hostile creatures within the aura that take cold damage, take additional cold damage equal to your Constitution modifier.

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

Frost Armor

Starting at 15th level, your Aura of Frost wreaths you in an imperceptible layer of ice which only appears when attacked. While you're not incapacitated, you gain a +1 bonus to your AC and are immune to cold damage.

Once per long rest, as a bonus action, you wreath a willing creature in an imperceptible layer of ice. While they are within the effect of your Aura of Frost they gain a +1 bonus to their AC and are immune to cold damage. Optionally, you can apply the Frost Armor bonus to yourself and gain an additional +1 bonus to your AC (total of +2).

Spectre of the Solstice

At 20th level, you gain the ability to, as an action, transform into a spectral knight of the Midwinter, wreathing yourself in shadows, filling the air around you with falling snow, and gaining the following benefits for 1 minute:

• All enemy creatures that you can see have disadvantage on saving throws against spells that deal cold damage.
• Your Aura of Frost's range increases to 60 feet, and any hostile creature within the aura that has immunity or resistance to cold damage has it reduced: Resistance is removed and immunity becomes resistance.
• Your improved divine smite feature's damage bonus increases to 2d8 damage (radiant or cold).

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