Oath of Blood

You are a Dhampir.  Whatever the origins of your entry into this lineage, you are born out of vampiric influence.  While you do not succumb to the inherent weaknesses of true vampires, you also do not enjoy the fullness of strengths or abilities that your fully vampiric counterparts possess.  For select Dhampir who long after the might and influence that true vampires embody, a bond with a powerful vampire lord can provide means to harnessing their power and attaining as close to full vampiric status as possible without fully becoming a vampire.

The vampire lord you have taken an oath to, both believing themself to be at a god-like status and as a mockery of the noble calling of traditional paladin, has made possible a means to grow in vampiric abilities by choosing to take an oath and align oneself with their desires and agenda.  As a Dhampir, you differ from vampire spawn in that you retain your own will and individuality and are not innately subservient to a vampire who created you, but by taking this oath you commit to serving this vampiric lord, and accept that if you repudiate them or veer too far from their will, you may surely face their wrath.

Other races/lineages may take this subclass as well to try and mimic vampiric power, but they will be limited by not starting out with, nor gaining some of the innate vampiric abilities that Dhampir possess (i.e., Darkvision, Spider Climb, Vampiric Bite).

When one takes the Oath of Blood as a paladin at 3 level, in addition to gaining oath-based features at 3, 7, 15, and 20 levels, certain aspects of initial pre-oath class-based abilities shift in their nature.

Lay on Hands

Even though you are undead, as a Dhampir you are also humanoid and are able to use this pool of healing power to heal yourself, but you still cannot use it to heal other undead or constructs.

Spellcasting - Spellcasting Focus

Instead of a holy symbol, your paladin spellcasting focus becomes an unholy symbol: the crest of your vampire lord.  This crest can be engraved or inlaid on a shield, armor, a ring, or a weapon.

Divine Smite

The fact that you were able to deal radiant damage early in your Paladin training was allowed as a test by your vampire lord to see if you would be tempted to use this on them, trying to weaken or usurp them.  They knew that in your weak, pithy state, they would ultimately never succumb to your attempts to destroy them, and by your choosing to not use this ability against them they grant you the ability to harm the overall lifeforce of others.  Starting at 3 level, when utilizing your divine smite ability, you now deal necrotic damage rather than radiant damage.

Oath of Blood Spells

An Oath of Blood paladin gains the following spells at the paladin levels listed.

Paladin Level	Spells
3rd	Disguise Self, Comprehend Languages
5th	Detect Thoughts, Mirror Image
9th	Vampiric Touch, Fireball
13th	Blight, Greater Invisibility
17th	Dominate Person, Cone of Cold

Channel Divinity

An Oath of Blood paladin of 3rd level or higher gains the following two Channel Divinity options.

Vampiric Glamour.  As an action, the paladin locks eyes with a target creature.  The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against this magic or become charmed, unless it is immune to being charmed.  On a failed save the target is charmed, and the target regards you as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected.  Although the target is not under your control, it takes your requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and is a willing target for your Vampiric Bite attack.

Each time you or your companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, evading the effect on itself on a success.  Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until you become unconscious, you are on a different plane of existence than the target, or you take a bonus action to end the effect.

Dreadful Aspect.  As an action, the paladin channels the darkest emotions and focuses them into a burst of magical menace.  Each creature of the paladin’s choice within 30 feet of the paladin must make a Wisdom saving throw if it can see the paladin.  On a failed save, the target is frightened of the paladin for 1 minute.  If a creature frightened by this effect ends its turn more than 30 feet away from the paladin, it can attempt another Wisdom saving throw to end the effect on it.

Shapechanger

Beginning at 7th level, the paladin can use their action to polymorph into a Tiny bat, a Medium wolf, a Medium cloud of mist, or back into your true form.  You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. 

    While in bat or wolf form, the paladin cannot speak.  In bat form, your walking speed is 5 feet, and you have a flying speed of 30 feet.  In wolf form, your walking speed is 40 feet.  The paladin’s statistics, other than your size and speed, are unchanged, but you do gain the special abilities and skill bonuses of the form you choose.  Anything you are wearing or carrying transforms with you.  You can use your Vampiric Bite attack while in bat form, and can attack as a wolf according to the wolf stats block.  You revert to your true form if you die.

    While in mist form, the paladin cannot take any actions, speak, or manipulate objects.  You are weightless, have a flying speed of 20 feet, can hover, and can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there.  If a creature starts their turn in a space occupied by your mist form, or if they enter this space during their turn, they take 1d6 poison damage.  In addition, if air can pass through a space, the mist can do so without squeezing, but it cannot pass through water.  You have advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws, and you are immune to all nonmagical damage.

Vampiric Escape

At 15th level, when you are reduced to 0 hit points and are not killed outright, you can choose to drop to 1 hit point instead.  When you do this, you transform into a cloud of mist (as in the Shapchanger oath feature) instead of falling unconscious, and you move 20 feet away from the nearest threat.

Vampire Lord

At 20th level, as an action, the paladin can summon the unholy energy within them to transform into an unholy vestige of fear and death.  For 1 hour, you gain the following benefits:

• Bat-like wings sprout from your back and grant you a flying speed of 60 feet.
• You emanate a chilling aura in a 30-foot radius. The first time any enemy creature enters the aura or starts its turn there during a battle, the creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.  Attack rolls against the frightened creature have advantage. 
• The Dhampir paladin also gains an improved Vampiric Bite attack.
  • You add your Constitution modifier to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with your bite. Your fangs grow in length and your bite now deals 3d6 necrotic damage on a hit. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the paladin regains hit points equal to the amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest.  The target dies if its hit point maximum is reduced to 0.
  • You also gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus is determined by rolling 1d4.
  • You can empower yourself with your bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

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