The Oath of Arcana is a very unusual oath among paladins, being considered by a lot of them like turning their backs on the gods and searching for hidden arcane power. Despite this belief, paladins who take this oath are not looking for new ways of power, but for knowledge, and their final goal is to use this knowledge to gain a better understanding of all everything that is happening in the chaotic world around them as well as learning how to fight those who use these magic powers to achieve evil goals. Gods like Apollo, Erathis and Ionun gave power to most of the paladins of this oath.

Tenets of the Arcana

Tenets of the Arcana aren’t very well defined since every paladin dedicates their devotion to different aspects of the arcane knowledge, but the most known ones are the following:

Learn and Improve: Study and meditation are as important for a paladin as keeping his sword sharp and his mind clear of temptations and doubts.

Enlighten those who need it: Knowledge is useless if you don’t share it with those who may need it. The life lessons one learns must be used not only to gain advantage on your enemies but to help others to defend themselves

Knowledge is the only Treasure: Delight in art and literature, find joy in learning. If you allow yourself to forget what you knew, don’t expect someone else to remember it for you.

Remember when everyone else forgets: A civilization that forgot where it came from is destined to disappear, a person who forgot the mistakes it made in the past is doomed to repeat them. You must never forget where you came from or what you did, for doing that would ensure your own doom.

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Paladin Level	Spells
3rd	Comprehend Languages, Shield
5th	Magic Weapon, Locate Object
9th	Counterspell, Dispel Magic
13th	Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Aura of Purity
17th	Far Step, Legend Lore

 

Arcane Smite

Thanks to your oath you learn how to channel the power of the gods in a different way than most of the paladins do. Every time you use your Divine Smite feature you can decide to deal Force damage instead of Radiant damage (Your choice), but the effects of this feature are still the same and you still get an additional dice when you target undead or fiends with your Divine Smite.

Channel Divinity: Eldritch Strike

You can use your Channel Divinity to empower your hits, so they can pass through your enemy’s defences. As a bonus action you can use your Channel Divinity to enchant one weapon you are wielding or touching. For a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier you deal an extra 1d6 force damage with your weapon attacks, which are considered magical for the duration of this feature.

If you drop the weapon you enchanted you lose this benefit, though it can be reactivated if you grab your weapon and you are still within the duration of this feature.

Channel Divinity: Arcane Sanctuary

This Channel Divinity option allows you to protect other creatures from harm using abjuration magic.

As a reaction when a creature is targeted by any kind of attack or spell, and that attack only targets one creature, you can force the attacker to do a Wisdom Saving Throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failed save the attack instantly misses. On a success the creature is still warded against the first attack, gaining resistance against it.

If the creature you forced to make the save can make several attacks per turn it can still target the warded creature with the following attacks, not having to make another saving throw and making the attacks as normal.

Aura of Warding

Starting at 7th level you learn how to protect others from magic at the cost of your own health. When a creature within 10 feet of you takes damage from any spell or feature like a breath weapon you can use your reaction and take half the damage taken by that creature. This damage cannot be reduced in any way.

If several creatures are within the damage range of a spell like Fire Ball you can use your reaction to halve the damage taken by all the creatures within your aura, taking half of the damage dealt by the spell or feature only once.

At 18th level the range of the Aura of Warding increases to 30 feet.

Holy Restoration

Starting at 15th level you learn how to regain part of your magical energy after resting for a short period of time. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than a quarter of your Paladin level (rounded up). These spell slots cannot be of 6th level or higher.

For example, if you are a 15th level paladin you regain 4 levels of spell slots, which can be used to regain one 4th level spell slot or two 2nd level spell slots.

Additionally, you regain a quarter of your HP pool for the Lay on Hands feature (rounded up).

Champion of Arcane and Holy

At 20th level you learn to channel the power of arcane and divine energy, enhancing not only your magical powers but also your ability to recall forgotten lore. While the transformation lasts your eyes turn into blue pools of golden light and arcane runes written in celestial levitate around your body and can be seen in your skin, weapons and armor. You also emit bright light in a 15 feet radius and dim light for other 15 feet.

Using your action, you undergo a transformation. For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits:

• Gain proficiency on the Arcana, History and Religion skills even if you weren’t proficient with them before. You double your proficiency bonus for any check made with these skills.
• Every time you use your Divine Smite feature you deal an extra 1d8 (The maximum number of d8s that you can roll for the damage of this feature also increases by 1)
• Each time you cast an Abjuration or Divination spell of 2nd level or higher using a spell slot, you regain one expended spell slot. The slot you regain must be of a level lower than the spell you cast and can't be higher than 5th level.
• You can use a bonus action to become a being of pure immaterial energy, being able to pass through any object not made of magical force. The equipment you are carried is also affected by this transformation. You also gain immunity against any non-magical damage until the end of your turn. If you end your turn inside any object you are pushed to the closest non-occupied space and take 1d6 force damage for every 5 feet you have been pushed. You are also knocked prone.

Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.